Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I’m fully behind.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.

I say, ‚Yeah, Taylor Swift.‘ I think she is a smart, beautiful girl. I think she’s making all the right moves. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s surrounded with wonderful people. Her songs are great. She keeps herself anchored. She knows who she is, and she’s living and standing by that.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

If you stop struggling, then you stop life.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

O, had I but followed the arts!

I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

I was arrested for lip-syncing karaoke.

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.

You see things; and you say ‚Why?‘ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‚Why not?‘

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.

When I look at acting careers that I really admire, I see that it’s been a precise decision-making process for these people. They make decisions based on what they love, and they do only the things that they are passionate about. They play only characters that they can’t stop thinking about.

Winning, to me, is easy. Winning more is the challenge.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

I couldn’t have written things like ‚Low‘ and ‚Heroes,‘ those particular albums, if it hadn’t have been for Berlin and the kind of atmosphere I felt there.

When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band – or at least in a Pixies cover band.

Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.

You are victors, not victims!

It was clear to me that if I could get through Princeton at the top of my class, I could do anything in the world.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.

My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!

We work to become, not to acquire.

Someone said to me, ‚If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?‘ My answer was then and still is, ‚If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.‘

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

I think sometimes – not always – I write songs that are accessible.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

I’m a writer first and a singer second.

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

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

The time is always right to do what is right.

Speaking purely from a musical standpoint, I think I am a great performer.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

If a guy hits .300 every year, what does he have to look forward to? I always tried to stay around .190, with three or four RBI. And I tried to get them all in September. That way I always had something to talk about during the winter.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

If you check your ego at the door when it comes to comedy, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

I do believe in self-help.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

Let us have no machine-made ornament at all; it is all bad and worthless and ugly.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.