Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

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.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Really, you don’t lose until you stop trying.

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.

To lead people walk behind them.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

With self-discipline most anything is possible.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

For me to talk with Obama and the conversation I had with him, I was letting him know that me and my fans have a special connection, and it’s love, and I believe that love is the answer.

Never complain and never explain.

Most employees only want to know how much they get paid and how much time off they get – they probably don’t have the mission in their souls.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

When I get down, I don’t waller around for long.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a teacher, an astronaut, or a reggaeton singer, you need to study.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

The colonel replied that he didn’t care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

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.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

There is nothing impossible to him who will try.

In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.

I am not designed to come second or third. I am designed to win.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

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

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

People always tell you, ‚Be humble. Be humble.‘ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Since I was old enough to understand what a songwriter/producer is, I’ve had a curiosity about how Max Martin creates what he creates. I wanted to see that happen. I wanted to be there. I wanted to learn from him.

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.

You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.

The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

I’m a big perfectionist! I’m trying to channel super-confident women like Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Beyonce, because I realized that if you want something, you really have to go for it, just like they do.

You can be passionate about anything.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.