Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little – somebody who is obsessed by Making.

That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best – make it all up – but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

We could definitely make a flying car – but that’s not the hard part. The hard part is, how do you make a flying car that’s super safe and quiet? Because if it’s a howler, you’re going to make people very unhappy.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

I’m interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology where you see it, and you’re like, ‚Wow, how did that even happen? How is that possible?‘

The New Deal repudiation of democracy has left the Republican Party alone the guardian of the Ark of the Covenant with its charter of freedom.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

People expect your behavior to conform to known patterns and conventions. Your task as a strategist is to upset their expectations.

Perhaps it’s good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he’s happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.

Stand-up is hard. Or to keep it at a certain level is hard: I have no writers but me.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

I believe in being an innovator.

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

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator… these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is.

In many ways, I’ve been writing personal stories all my life.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

I have a definite talent for convincing people to try something new. I am a good salesman. When I’m on form, I can sell anything.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

In America there’s no way I can make the kind of movie I like to make.

Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It’s rage, it’s creativity, it’s pain, it’s hurt, but it’s the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music.

There’s no formula.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching.

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.

You cannot be creative with people around you.

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

I’m not going to lie; listen, I’m nice at basketball.

A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.

Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn’t anticipate.

Learn to invest in investments where you can achieve an honest, legal advantage over other investors. When it comes to investing, why play on a level field?

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I think a poet is anybody who wouldn’t call himself a poet.

If an idea isn’t exciting, you shouldn’t do it.

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

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, ‚Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?‘ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.

I’m just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I’m inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

You can’t really imagine music without technology.

Silicon Valley has some of the smartest engineers and technology business people in the world.

I try to really capitalize off of what other rappers really can’t do. There are opportunities that rappers I love simply can’t get, because… you know… I don’t have the tattoos; I have a different image.

You are remembered for the rules you break.

Why should poetry have to make sense?

I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.

Doing graphic novels is cool! It’s fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.

There’s no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

In order for us to have a future that’s exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we’re a space-bearing civilization.

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.