Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

I woke up one day and thought: ‚I want to write a book about the history of my body.‘ I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world. But the truth is you really don’t.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.

I believe God, Jesus, died that we not just go to Heaven but that we excel in this life. I never think you make money your goal… God wants you to excel. Just keep Him in first place, and God will open up doors you never dreamed of.

Ego is only fine when it is working for your motivation.

Character is destiny.

An artist needn’t be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.

I’ve been blessed to be somebody that’s been climbing that success mountain top for years of hard work, you know, but now it’s all connecting. And now, the whole world is watching, you know what I’m saying, and it feels good ‚cause it’s good energy. This is all positive vibes, and good vibes and good energy, so it feels incredible.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

‚The Lion‘ all began with a picture of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself, ‚Let’s try to make a story about it.‘

Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the raising sun.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

Energy begets energy.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

What really motivates people at Facebook is building stuff that they’re proud of.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

I don’t go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, ‚Let’s see if I can get this done today.‘

I remember, when I was a young guy in the SEAL teams, I was very afraid of making mistakes and looking stupid or doing dumb things and getting a bad reputation.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

Everyone has the potential to become an encourager. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be a genius. You don’t have to have it all together. All you have to do is care about people and initiate.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed – there’s so little competition.

I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

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.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.

If you tell me there’s something I can’t do, I’ll want to do it even more. Especially when it comes to entertaining.

I have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

I’m interested in Jackson Pollock’s kind of art, where art is beautiful, but it’s nothing, and yet it’s incredible.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

Nothing will work unless you do.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.