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.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

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.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

For me, genres are a way for people to easily categorize music. But it doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to limit you.

I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world.

If I weren’t performing, I’d be a beauty editor or a therapist. I love creativity, but I also love to help others. My mother was a hairstylist, and they listen to everyone’s problems – like a beauty therapist!

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

Nature is wont to hide herself.

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.

Nothing is more fearful than imagination without taste.

Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.

When I write, it’s like choosing which shoes I’m going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal – but I sometimes have to put myself in other people’s shoes.

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.

A word after a word after a word is power.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.

The world’s biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.

I don’t write policy for my government.

I very rarely watch my own fashion shows, but the makeup for my Fall 2011 show was just brilliant.

With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‚Are people interested?‘ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

I don’t set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

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

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

Think off-center.

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.

I can’t consciously explain how people feel after reading my books. All is too personal.

The only frustrating thing about jail is that I can’t make music.

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

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

Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I’m fully behind.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

I’ve never had writer’s block.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.

I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel. I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected, moments of experience. I guess that’s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don’t understand.

You’re not going to make Hemingway better by adding animations.

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

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.