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.

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy – well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I’m President, I never will.

I’ve been asking myself: ‚Why put together these things – CDs, albums?‘ The answer I came up with is, well, sometimes it’s artistically viable. It’s not just a random collection of songs. Sometimes the songs have a common thread, even if it’s not obvious or even conscious on the artists‘ part.

We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

I don’t want to make niche-oriented music.

I can hold my own when it comes to burping. I’ve got a good feeling that I could win a championship.

No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.

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

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.

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.

I can dance to just about anything.

In the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.

I’m trying to do what Eddie Murphy did for his generation. You have to show people, ‚I’m different. I’m not just a comedian.‘ I’m trying to become a rock star.

This revolution, the information revoultion, is a revolution of free energy as well, but of another kind: free intellectual energy. It’s very crude today, yet our Macintosh computer takes less power than a 100-watt bulb to run it and it can save you hours a day. What will it be able to do ten or 20 years from now, or 50 years from now?

The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.

All of my music is honest.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

I’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.

And you know, I’ve had great fun turning quite a lot of different industries on their head and making sure those industries will never be the same again, because Virgin went in and took them on.

The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I’m really not worth being called an artist at all.

When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

The real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.

Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what they had because they didn’t have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

My paintings have gotten to be pretty popular and I’ve taken a little bit more interest in painting the last few years. In fact, my novel that I wrote not too long ago, ‚The Hornet’s Nest,‘ I painted the cover picture for it and I do a good bit of painting now.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age.

Music is this divine thing, the closest that we can get to something divine. It’s like this instinct we all own, and some of us have found a way to hear that music and write it down and share it with people.

I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who can write.

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.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo’s sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey’s angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

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

Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

I’m trying to construct a world that maximises the probability that SpaceX continues its mission without me.

We can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs. After a decade that was defined by what we bought and borrowed, we’re getting back to basics, and doing what America has always done best: We’re making things again.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

We must ensure that technology is accessible, affordable, and adds value.

I love dresses, and I’ve definitely thought about designing them someday. I just want to make sure that I wait until the time is perfect and I can do it right.

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

I don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.

You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward. That’s how we make progress for ourselves and for our country.

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

If you think back to the beginning of cell phones, laptops or really any new technology, it’s always expensive.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

When I started working on ambient music, my idea was to make music that was more like painting.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

You don’t have to be scared of me, because I am loyal. Why are people so scared of creative ideas and so scared of truth? All I want to do is do good.

I wrote a few children’s books… not on purpose.

The vision is to figure out how there can really be dynamic entrepreneurialism in space.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

I’ve got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I’ve got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.