Every once in a while, I get mad. ‚The Lorax‘ came out of my being angry. The ecology books I’d read were dull… In ‚The Lorax,‘ I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might.

Don’t be a writer; it’s a terrible way to live your life. There’s nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don’t expect anything from anybody.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

I hope that what you take away from my album is not just the music – which I did want to be fun, and I did want it to be about individuality, but please also take away from it that there’s no dream that’s too big.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

I think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it’s not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That’s how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be a musician.

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

I wake up every day inspiring myself, because God gave me life.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

If I’m gonna write songs about my exes, they can write songs about me. That’s how it works.

It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.

Civil disobedience is – it’s no fun.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

I hope my story inspires everyone out there to keep hustling and chasing their dreams.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

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

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

In art the best is good enough.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

Many people, especially in the U.S., see countries like Sweden or Norway or Finland as role models – we have such a clean energy sector, and so on. That may be true, but we are not role models.

What is past is prologue.

And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

The arts don’t exist in isolation.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince – for the vocals, anyway.

God wants to use you to make other people happy! And the happier you make others, the happier you will be because you reap what you sow.

When you’re around me and really see that all I do is live and breathe for my work, it’s not strange, it’s just Gaga.

You can’t die with an unfinished book.

We based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

Few people have the imagination for reality.

If you are going to write, say, fantasy – stop reading fantasy. You’ve already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you’re going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

I believe in Coach Louis Wong. He is so much more than just a football coach.

To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

Cast away your sloth, your lethargy, your coldness, or whatever interferes with your chaste and pure love for Christ, your soul’s husband. Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul’s range of delight.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people’s eyes before you even put out an album.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

You should be attacking the carbon emissions, period, and whether it’s cap-and-trade or carbon tax or whatever, that’s the realm in which we should be playing.

Kitty Wells was the first and only Queen of Country Music, no matter what they call the rest of us. She was a great inspiration to me as well as every other female singer in the country music business. In addition to being a wonderful asset to country music, she was a wonderful woman.

The emotions in a song – the anger, aggression – have got to be legitimate.

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

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

The people who tend to raise antiwar slogans will do so generally when it’s American or British interests involved.

The ideals and principles for which Dr King fought have never been forgotten and are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago.

Good ideas are free – or at least they should be.

We’re all dreamers.

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.

I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I’m a writer… I write.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.