Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin – find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

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.

Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It’s the same with me and writing.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero, because he’s someone I look up to every day.

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

I never dreamt, in my dream, I’m Dalai Lama.

The bravest person I’ve ever met was a young boy going through massive amounts of treatment for a very rare, complex and unpleasant disease. I last saw him at a Discworld convention, where he chose to take part in a game as an assassin. He died not long afterwards, and I wish I had his fortitude and sense of style.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.

I usually don’t like to ‚spoon feed‘ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

Where the mind goes, the man follows.

Green Eggs and Ham was the story of my life. I wouldn’t eat a thing when I was a kid, but Dr. Seuss inspired me to try cauliflower!

I never woke up and thought, ‚I really want to live a bold life.‘

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist.

The successful men I admired all built their bodies.

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

In every walk of life, you must have leaders. An education in the spiritual world, in the labor field, in the agricultural field, we must have leaders.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

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

Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either into weak prettiness or lifeless abstraction: whereas to touch the ideal at all, you must not strip it of vitality.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.

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.

It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‚I’m possible‘!

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‚You’re going to do it my way.‘ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‚You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.‘

Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world.

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

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.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

I have certain guys who I looked up to. Jordan, Kobe, those guys. Passing that on to doing my part to kind of keep that influence of basketball where it should be is kind of why I play the game.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

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

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg – I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.