And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see – or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It’s a story.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

My mother would kill me if I posed nude! My mother raised me with certain standards.

Art is going to make a bigger comeback than ever. That’s the upside to things getting challenging.

If you’re the parent, be a parent. You know what I mean? I’m a parent. I have daughters.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

I used to like to set different film clips to classical music, not even my own songs, but make little movies.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

God wants to use you to make other people happy! And the happier you make others, the happier you will be because you reap what you sow.

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince – for the vocals, anyway.

It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.

I think I have had so much blessing – I’ve had my brother, who was brilliant – I think my family came closest to making a genius when they made my brother – Bailey was just all of that. He loved me.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday’s dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.

My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

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

People don’t care about what someone says about you in a movie – or even what you say, right? They care about what you build. And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

Christmas is the perfect time to celebrate the love of God and family and to create memories that will last forever. Jesus is God’s perfect, indescribable gift. The amazing thing is that not only are we able to receive this gift, but we are able to share it with others on Christmas and every other day of the year.

I tried to give the world a bit of creativity, lyrics. And for me, I will always represent music from Puerto Rico, reggaeton, Latin music.

You know, I look like a woman but I think like a man. And in this world of business, that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think that I don’t know what’s goin‘ on, I then got the money, and gone.

If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There’s nothing foolproof.

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‚I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.‘

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

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

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don’t try to play younger than I really am.

He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.

Let us have no machine-made ornament at all; it is all bad and worthless and ugly.

If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you’re sort of writing the same song over and over again.

Fashion is inspired by youth and nostalgia and draws inspiration from the best of the past.

My whole life and my whole career, even through my music, I tell people: let’s unify; let’s show more love.

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

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.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

One has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That’s how the human species has done as well as it has.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

You have to be practical. So every time I say, if you want to write a novel you have to be practical, people get bored. They are disappointed. They are expecting a more dynamic, creative, artistic thing to say. What I want to say is: you have to be practical.

My friends ask me if I want more kids, and I always say yes, I want more; it’s the best thing you can have in your life.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

The death of my father is probably the biggest thing that I ever faced. Daddy and I were best friends.

It’s lack that gives us inspiration. It’s not fullness.

If I were a Negro, I’d be fighting, as Martin Luther King fought, for human recognition and justice. I’d rather go down with my flag flying. If you’re weak or crippled, or you can’t speak out or fight back in some way, then people don’t hesitate to treat you badly.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

In our home there was always prayer – aloud, proud and unapologetic.