A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

That terrible mood of depression of whether it’s any good or not is what is known as The Artist’s Reward.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Don’t try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie. Study computers instead.

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.

I never played with anything like toys.

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.

Genres aren’t closed boxes. Stuff flows back and forth across the borders all the time.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

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

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

I always like to create things that get attention. It used to be a problem when I wasn’t famous. Now, I can do whatever I want and people have to accept it.

I can make something magical and wonderful out of nothing.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him.

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

Genius, when young, is divine.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

I’m in this business to be creative – I’ll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake. I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

Yes, the Bible should be taught in our schools because it is necessary to understand the Bible if we are to truly understand our own culture and how it came to be. The Bible has influenced every part of western culture from our art, music, and history, to our sense of fairness, charity, and business.

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.

If I weren’t performing, I’d be a beauty editor or a therapist. I love creativity, but I also love to help others. My mother was a hairstylist, and they listen to everyone’s problems – like a beauty therapist!

Whenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.

One often makes music to supplement one’s world.

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.

Even as a child, Muhammad Ali got perverse pleasure out of being different. He liked the attention it got him, but most of all he just liked being himself: odd and independent.

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

We must use time creatively.

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.

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

I seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

Yes, there is a terrible moral in ‚Dorian Gray‘ – a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.