The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

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

I don’t like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can’t do it.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

Cowardice… is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?

I’m fascinated by musicians who don’t completely understand their territory; that’s when you do your best work.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

I grow daily to honour facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing; a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

Example is leadership.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

Some of the stories I admire seem to zero in on one particular time and place. There isn’t a rule about this. But there’s a tidy sense about many stories I read. In my own work, I tend to cover a lot of time and to jump back and forward in time, and sometimes the way I do this is not very straightforward.

Get up tomorrow early in the morning, and earlier than you did today, and do the best that you can. Always stay near me, for tomorrow I will have much to do and more than I ever had, and tomorrow blood will leave my body above the breast.

I brought myself down. I impeached myself by resigning.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

Lots of young players have triumphed at United, so why can’t it happen to me? I’m not worried I’m young – it’s an incentive to do the best I can.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

I have retired, but if there’s anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.

I have the space and liberty to create.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

I’m my own worst critic, and if I don’t pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won’t be a happy girl.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

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

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.

I used to consider the listener. But now I’m in a space where, if I’m not inspired, I can’t really do the music. I can’t feel it.

A collection is not just one basic idea. It comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like and put down on paper and then work out.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

You can’t think; you just gotta do things.

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Human development thus far has been fueled and guided by the feeling that things could be, and are probably going to be, better.