As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

I’m trying to throw a big broad net to try to get people interested in God and believe that He’s for them and has a purpose.

Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.

There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

Therapy? I don’t need that. The roles that I choose are my therapy.

I’ve always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder.

Any artist, the work you do, if it’s a painting or if it’s a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else’s life. That’s what’s fun about sharing art.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

When I was young, I could not imagine being old. My mother said, and the doctor confirmed, that I had an unusual amount of energy; and it followed me into young adulthood.

I use my celebrity status to inspire someone, to give them hope.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

You are never too young to learn, never too old to change.

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.

I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

Imagination decides everything.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

I can imagine it’s hard to make a relationship last. I wouldn’t know.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‚Runaway‘ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‚That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.‘

I think I’ve developed, as many people do, this sense of, ‚Don’t say the wrong thing, or else people will point at you and laugh.‘

Medicines are only fit for old people.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

I kinda live where I find myself.

Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

I’ve never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there’s nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there. It’s coming up out of my unconscious, up from places that I don’t even know where they are.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

Make bold choices and make mistakes. It’s all those things that add up to the person you become.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

I’m not trying to follow a set of rules and stuff. I’m just living my life.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

Single life is so overrated.