Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.

If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.

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

The artist in me cries out for design.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Being beautiful is not so fun when you’re in a business with all men.

I’ve had a fan who made a painting of my face with her fingers. I have put it up in my room. It was sweet and very different.

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers – organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative – if we don’t solve these security problems, then people will hold back.

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

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

Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level.

How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact!

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

In all seriousness, people think that it’s the ideas that are important. Well, everyone has ideas, all the time. I tend to write mine down and remember them, but at some point you have to apply the bum to the seat and knock out about sixty five thousand words – that’s how long a novel is.

I used to – my earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. I’ve always heard kind of melodies in my head.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.

I criticize by creation – not by finding fault.

Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‚Don’t try.‘ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.

I kinda like the idea of having an album that’s all me.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

Women have a certain sexuality, and I think their bodies are beautiful, and I’m not embarrassed to explore that in a film. But there are things you get offered that are vulgar and violent – just like there’s a side of me that’s vulgar and violent.

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

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

I think that’s why I put my energy into making music. That’s how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

Writing is my love. If you love something, you find a lot of time. I write for two hours a day, usually starting at midnight; at times, I start at 11.

I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

The good thing about having chemistry is, when you get to the improv section of a scene, you’ve got somebody to feed off. It can go on and on and on, and the sky’s the limit.

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people. Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when I’m joking and when I’m serious.

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

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

Truths and roses have thorns about them.