A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

I’ve learned that we all change constantly. It’s rare to find that person who is growing with you in the same way at the same time, who encourages you to grow.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.

Remember that your imagination is yours and yours alone. You have the inborn capacity to use it in any way that you choose. No one else is responsible for your imagination. Anything placed in your imagination and held there ultimately becomes your reality.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

Transformation literally means going beyond your form.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

I’m afraid to fail again.

I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

I always tell young girls, surround yourself with goodness. I learned early on how to get the haters out of my life.

For me, ‚risky‘ is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

Man’s enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

There’s a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

I believe time wounds all heels.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

Individuals need to be willing to face truth about their attitudes, behaviors, even what we want out of life.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

I don’t care if people I admire criticize me because their opinion is valuable to me.

I didn’t consider myself a fashion designer at all at the time of punk. I was just using fashion as a way to express my resistance and to be rebellious. I came from the country, and by the time I got to London, I considered myself to be very stupid. It was my ambition to understand the world I live in.

I am proud of having done what I’ve done. Very proud.

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

The devil is a peace stealer, and he works hard to set us up to get upset. But we can learn how to change our approach so we don’t live upset all of the time. And Jesus gives us the best example to follow.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

We all have done something unethical.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

I’m fat, but I’m thin inside… there’s a thin man inside every fat man.

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.