Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

If you give a person a fish, they’ll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime.

Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.

‚Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

I want to look my best for God. So many people have the attitude that if you’re a Christian you’ve got to dress bad, wear an old color, not do anything to your hair, have nothing. It’s no wonder that Christianity is not very attractive. I mean, how many people do you know in a Western culture that’s going to go, ‚Yeah, give me some of that?‘

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

I think everybody’s trying to get to a place in themselves where they conquer what they was afraid of; they achieve some of their life goals, kept their word about what they were trying to do.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

We had problems like all families but we had a lot of love. I was extremely loved. We always felt we had each other.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Malcolm X was the first political person in this country that I really identified with. If he had lived and not been purged, I probably would have joined the Muslims.

Love is trembling happiness.

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

I was in Europe and it was at this stage that I fell in love with Americans in uniform. And I continue to have that love affair.

It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.

Love is the only game that is not called on account of darkness.

When I get married, it’ll be no secret.

Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

O, had I but followed the arts!

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

In God’s family, there are no outsiders, no enemies.

I wake up in the morning and my mind starts making sentences, and I have to get rid of them fast – talk them or write them down.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

If I can be a leader, I will.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

I believe when it comes to love, there’s something intangible about who we are attracted to, and I don’t think I have a pattern.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

I definitely don’t think that money can buy you love. It can buy you affection but certainly not love.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

The artist in me cries out for design.

I’ve never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I’ve only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

People react to fear, not love; they don’t teach that in Sunday School, but it’s true.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.

It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn‘ fool if they weren’t.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

I’m really bad with answering questions. Usually, I don’t even answer them. I try to find inspiration inside of the question. I think, and I jump from one beam of inspiration or energy to the next, as opposed to explaining the energy.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his ‚basic rights.‘

I love to play. And fortunately, I don’t know a lot of musicians that suck. I know a bunch of really good ones, and they’re always up for playing.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

I write some country music. There’s a song called ‚I Hope You Dance.‘ Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.