All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

It’s honestly true that money means nothing to me.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

You see things; and you say ‚Why?‘ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‚Why not?‘

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.

Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.

Of course there are moments that you wonder how long you should be doing it because there are other aspects which are not nice, of this lifestyle. But I just love winning.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.

In the future, you won’t buy artists‘ works; you’ll buy software that makes original pieces of ‚their‘ works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the raising sun.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

I don’t think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

I don’t think I am evangelical in my work.

Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary ‚real‘ world.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself – let’s put it that way.

Do your job. Do it the best you can. Do it right, because somebody, sometimes your best friend, is waiting for you to screw up so she can take your place.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that’s it. The lifestyle doesn’t change.

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Surface R&B doesn’t work any more. The whole heartthrob thing, songs about unrealistic love and tearing your shirt off every show – that’s not really where it’s at any more. It’s becoming harder for those guys to sell records, and harder for them to succeed.

Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did.

Good ideas are free – or at least they should be.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

Some people have a hard time getting rid of stuff. If that’s you, pray for God to give you the courage to get rid of things you don’t really need or things He wants you to give away. This will help keep your surroundings organized and clutter-free.

Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice.

It takes no more time to see the good side of life than it takes to see the bad.

Metal, I love metal sounds. If I have a stick with me, I just drag it across a fence. And all fences make different sounds, just like people when they laugh.

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

Over the years I’ve learned how to lock myself up in a prison of hope, knowing that God has nothing but His best planned for me. He promised me things concerning my ministry and my life.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.