Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

It’s a curse. I ask God to take this away from me all the time. I do not like being an artist.

Total relaxation is the secret to enjoying sitting meditation. I sit with my spine upright, but not rigid; and I relax all the muscles in my body.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Life loves the liver of it.

I’ve had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

I’ve never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

The influence of ‚Hidden Fortress‘ comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it’s told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.

Perhaps it’s good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he’s happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

I don’t intend to stop making music.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.

Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

I really haven’t had that exciting of a life. There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life. So I pretty much like to make it up. I’d rather tell a story about somebody else.

Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation… even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

From the moment I open my eyes, I’m trying to free my body. I’m trying to get looser, more flexible, to gain control. Movement is medicine to me.

Steven Spielberg was my childhood hero.

I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.

I decided to sell my drawings. However, I didn’t want people to buy my drawings because the professor of physics isn’t supposed to be able to draw – isn’t that wonderful – so I made up a false name.

I’m the only person of distinction who has ever had a depression named for him.

I think beating myself up sometimes and knowing I am not happy when I do it makes me work harder to do a good job.

People wanted me to do a CD-ROM of ‚Hitchhiker’s,‘ and I thought, ‚No, no.‘ I didn’t want to just sort of reverse-engineer yet another thing from a book I’d already written. I think that the digital media are interesting enough in their own right to be worth originating something in.

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.

The dieting wars have got to stop.

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

I want people to draw strength from me.

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.

A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.

There’s hope for everyone. That’s what makes the world go round.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

If you hear a voice within you say ‚you cannot paint,‘ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest – but suffer from a constant strain.

Drunkenness is temporary suicide.

Today, I’d like to talk to Bob Marley. I’d just like to ask him what was his method. Bob is one of the greatest songwriters ever. I don’t know if people understand how powerful his songs are and the simplicity and genius behind them, from ‚Redemption Song‘ to ‚Is This Love?‘ and ‚I Shot the Sheriff.‘

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

I would like to see a future where artists think that they have a right to contemplate things like global warming.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.

As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday’s dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.