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

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

You can be passionate about anything.

Through my films I’m eventually trying to one day tell the truth. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get there, but I’m slowly letting pieces of myself out there and then maybe by the time I’m 85, I’ll look back and say, ‚All right, that about sums it up.‘

I’ve been lucky – all the ads I’ve got, I’ve got to be myself. I haven’t had to act too much or tried too hard to be someone I’m not. I think that’s why people sort of like them. Even the Fastrack ads I did with Genelia.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

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.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

I’ve always had a problem with the average macho man – they’ve always been a threat to me.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is to choose a notable and joyous dress for men. There would be more joy in life if we were to accustom ourselves to use all the beautiful colours we can in fashioning our own clothes.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea of me being on stage having to sing in front of people.

Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.

I just want to be myself.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it’s saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

It’s much more fun to play something you’re nothing like than what you are… It’s much easier to hide yourself in a character.

I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness. Heaven knows that John the Baptist was not more eager to get all his fellow sinners into the Jordan than I to baptize all of mine in the beauty of God’s mountains.

And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

To the audience, it’s like I’m changing the subject every five seconds, but to me, my show’s almost like a 90-minute song that I know exactly. I wrote every note, and I know exactly where everything is.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

I went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay.

I love to dance, but my children tell me I shouldn’t. Can’t see why.

I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.

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

I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who can write.

If I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.

My enthusiasm seems to cause my world to endlessly offer me cooperative, co-creating experiences. I’m willing and I’m eager, and not just about my writing – I feel the same way about staying in shape, enjoying my family, giving a lecture, or whatever it may be.

If I love you, what business is it of yours?

Everybody has their thing they like or don’t like to see. It’s all in your head. That’s why people take their own pictures, because it’s difficult for someone else to capture what you seek.

An artist or a creative person of any kind goes about their work because it’s their path, it’s what excites them, it’s what aligns their soul with who they truly are, who they showed up to be.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

People always say when they meet me that I’m not what they expect. I assume they think I’m this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you’re wrinkled.

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.

I’ve had everything pierced at some point.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

A film is sort of binary – it either works or it doesn’t work. It has nothing to do with how good a job you do. If you bring it up to an adequate level where the audience goes with the movie, then it works, that is all.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

The finest clothing made is a person’s own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this.

I thought one should have the attitude of ‚What do you care what other people think!‘

I’ve spent too much time giving speeches, traveling the world.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

Wherever I go meeting the public… spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing.

I’m terrified of therapy because I don’t want it to mess with my creativity.

I could never give relationship advice to anybody!

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

I just have an enthusiasm for life.

I work hard for the audience. It’s entertainment. I don’t need validation.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I do have tatoos, and I do wear leather, but there are other sides of me, that my film express.

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.