‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

I get so excited when a song I wrote that’s very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

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.

I’ve dreamed about doing music since I was three or four years old.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

Man has throughout the ages been seeking something beyond himself, beyond material welfare – something we call truth or God or reality, a timeless state – something that cannot be disturbed by circumstances, by thought or by human corruption.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

You know why Foo Fighters have been a band for 20 years? Because I’ve never really told anybody what I think of them. The last thing you ever want to do is go to therapy with your band.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.

I wouldn’t call myself a synaesthete in the sense that Nabokov was. But I’ll talk about a sound as being cold blue or dark brown. For descriptive purposes, yes, I often see colors when I’m listening to music and think, ‚Oh, there’s not enough sort of yellowy stuff in here, or not enough white.‘

Honestly, I’d love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I’m doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I’m doing.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can’t swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it’s what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and watch people dance.

Writing music is just like writing a book.

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

In case you’re wondering whether I lip synch, the answer is no… people think so because I sound so good.

The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It’s a battle you can’t hope to win – it’s a battle that’s going to go on forever. It’s part of the human condition.

I’ve made over 25 studio albums, and I think probably I’ve made two real stinkers in my time, and some not-bad albums, and some really good albums. I’m proud of what I’ve done. In fact it’s been a good ride.

Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.

Who would set a limit to the mind of man? Who would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

Whenever I think about movies, I always look at that art process as having the best of a lot of worlds. Because if you watch a great film, you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited – that has music and rhythm and time.

I’m not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

For the chorus of ‚Secrets,‘ we used The Romantics‘ ‚Talking in Your Sleep‘ and ‚Pale Shelter‘ by Tears for Fears. It’s like hip-hop: just grab it.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Zappa was very technical and impressed by things that were musically challenging – weird time signatures, strange keys, awkward chord sequences. Zappa was important to me as an example of everything I didn’t want to do. I’m very grateful to him, actually.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

Music from my fourth year began to be the first of my youthful occupations. Thus early acquainted with the gracious muse who tuned my soul to pure harmonies, I became fond of her, and, as it often seemed to me, she of me.

Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.

I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn’t exist without the performance-art element.

No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

I don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

Which death is preferably to every other? ‚The unexpected‘.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.