I think when people make a record with a goal in mind – like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature – that gets in the way of writing great songs.

Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.

I do like Burial; he’s so curiously clumsy, you can’t help but be moved. It’s so un-Hollywood, and the rhythms are so un-danceable.

I always like to create things that get attention. It used to be a problem when I wasn’t famous. Now, I can do whatever I want and people have to accept it.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

Music in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others.

Becoming an inspiration for kids is great. I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

I hate talking about music, to tell you the truth.

Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it’s reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She’s been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there.

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.

I’m pretty sure in my older years, I’ll be doing old-time flavored folk-mountain music.

I wanted to write.

Hawaii is paradise. It sounds cheesy to say it, but there’s music in the air there.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.

We will naturally pursue our goals on the strength of our own resources, skills and enterprise. But, we know that we will be more successful when we do this in partnership with the world.

Make sure of your commitment to Jesus Christ, and seek to follow Him every day. Don’t be swayed by the false values and goals of this world, but put Christ and His will first in everything you do.

I wake up every day inspiring myself, because God gave me life.

Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

You don’t have to be a renowned artist like Q-Tip to try your hand at poetry. You don’t need any special equipment – that’s the beauty of it.

A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.

I don’t think anyone ever plans to change line-ups, but it’s something that comes with being in bands. I was in a band once and there were always problems – members come and go – and some of the world’s biggest bands have changed line-ups loads!

If it’s good music, it’s good music.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I’d listen to Italian music.

That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

It’s the way I study – to understand something by trying to work it out or, in other words, to understand something by creating it. Not creating it one hundred percent, of course; but taking a hint as to which direction to go but not remembering the details. These you work out for yourself.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

As much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I’d eventually run out of steam on that, and that would’ve been the end of it.

You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life.

I don’t think there’s such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.

The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.

Performing is a thing in itself, a distinct skill, different from making recordings. And for those who can do it, it’s a way to make a living.

You listen to Charlie Parker or John Coltrane before they found their voice, they sounded different. And when you listen to them after they found their voice on their instruments, they sound more confident and in control. Artists have that, too.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

I do seem to like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

I believe in singing to such an extent that, if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing becomes a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for cooperation with others.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

As scientists, we step on the shoulders of science, building on the work that has come before us – aiming to inspire a new generation of young scientists to continue once we are gone.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

When I was four, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.