From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.

Making music is like shopping for me. Every song is like a new pair of shoes.

I’ve never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there’s nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there. It’s coming up out of my unconscious, up from places that I don’t even know where they are.

I have always enjoyed watching my songs make people cry.

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.

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

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

The great moments of rock ‚n‘ roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

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

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

Life loves the liver of it.

Courage is grace under pressure.

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

Doing Saturday Night Live definitely affects my relationship with my girlfriend and with my family, because you feel so much pressure to do well that night. But I think everyone’s grown to accept that and so they give me my space at the show.

Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

There’s always gonna be rock n‘ roll bands, there’s always gonna be kids that love rock n‘ roll records, and there will always be rock n‘ roll.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

So many girls come up and say to me, ‚I have never listened to country music in my life. I didn’t even know my town had a country-music station. Then I got your record, and now I’m obsessed.‘ That’s the coolest compliment to me.

I think ‚Invisible‘ is a great song, but I don’t know how accessible it is.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

A collection is not just one basic idea. It comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like and put down on paper and then work out.

I don’t think I’d ever make an album of just covers because I love writing my own music.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Hope is not a resting place but a starting point – a cactus, not a cushion.

I don’t think a song should be put in a category.

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

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

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

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‚Runaway‘ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‚That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.‘

You have to dream before your dreams can come true.

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

The ‚Maddox Jolie-Pitt‘ Foundation’s work is inspired by our children and their connections to particular countries.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

You can’t die with an unfinished book.

People are already finding ways to make their music and play it in front of people and have a life in music, I guess, and I think that’s pretty much all you can ask.

See, when you drive home today, you’ve got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you’ve got a little bitty rearview mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what’s happened in your past is not near as important as what’s in your future.

Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.

Usually, when Nirvana made music, there wasn’t a lot of conversation. We wanted everything to be surreal. We didn’t want to have some contrived composition.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

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

Music has to be sort of ignorable sometimes.

Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

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

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.

My fans don’t feel like I hold anything back from them. They know whatever I’m going through now, they’ll hear about it on a record someday. They’ll hear the real story. There’s a little bit of lag time. It’s not as instant as going on a gossip blog. But it’s much more accurate.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

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.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

When you’re singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It’s happening.

I don’t know, I feel desperate when I sing. And I look desperate – it feels like I’m singing for my life, which makes me twitch, if that makes sense.