A person standing in front of an audience without enthusiasm for his subject and his actions is disconnected from his spirit.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I’m not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won’t be disappointed in me.

When it comes to knowing what to say, to charm, I always had it.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t make a political speech outside of my state for 20 years.

You go to a festival, you know you’re not going to play all new material at a festival. The audience is not there for that. I’ve made that mistake, but you find out pretty quickly.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

I want to look my best for God. So many people have the attitude that if you’re a Christian you’ve got to dress bad, wear an old color, not do anything to your hair, have nothing. It’s no wonder that Christianity is not very attractive. I mean, how many people do you know in a Western culture that’s going to go, ‚Yeah, give me some of that?‘

I want people to understand they have to live their own lives the way they want to and not just do what we do.

I just want to be myself.

Advertising works most effectively when it’s in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook – they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing – so there’s really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

In a sense I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

I usually don’t like to ‚spoon feed‘ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

A lot of people have said I’d have probably done better in my career if I hadn’t looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn’t be blamed because you want to look pretty.

I always say that women should wear whatever makes them feel good about themselves. That’s what I always try to do.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

Everyone calls me Bruno; they don’t ever call me Peter – that was just my government name.

You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!

In art, at a certain level, there is no ‚better than.‘ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognised.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‚What kind of music do you make?‘, and you say, ‚Pop music.‘ You may as well have ‚I’m not cool‘ stamped on your forehead.

I wanted to write.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

I am criticised for not celebrating my goals enough. I am very happy from within, very calm. I just don’t celebrate. I celebrate inside.

I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men’s clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don’t want to meet them.

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it’s always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

You can be passionate about anything.

All that self-expression has just created a generation of morons, hooked on an endless appetite for rubbish.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

I like everything. Boyish girls, girlish boys, the heavy and the skinny. Which is a problem when I’m walking down the street.

I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.

Style is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying. It is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward.

I think there is a little magic in the fact that I’m so totally real but look so artificial at the same time.

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

I don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

My thing is this; if I’m sick enough to think it, then I’m sick enough to say it.

‚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.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

When Caroline Kennedy managed to say ‚you know‘ more than 200 times in an interview with the New York ‚Daily News,‘ and on 130 occasions while talking to ‚The New York Times‘ during her uninspired attempt to become a hereditary senator, she proved, among other things, that she was (a) middle-aged and (b) middle class.

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.

It’s a curse. I ask God to take this away from me all the time. I do not like being an artist.

What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

I was always taught not to answer no questions. I’m not really good at answering them because I get agitated so fast.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.