I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

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.

I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

To the extent I am known, I think I am known as a person who expresses his opinion freely about things – and I was sensitive to the possibility that if I was seen taking money for saying nice things about a product, my comments and choices and opinions would become, understandably, suspect.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn’t think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.

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

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

I never sell a book. I sell myself. And the way to sell yourself is to be an instrument of love.

Until it’s on the radio or online, it’s not real. With U2, our album isn’t finished until it’s in the stores.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

If a great opportunity opens itself up, I would love to be involved… or star in a movie.

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.

Playing basketball all my life, I’ve collected a lot of different basketball shoes. It’s pretty much all I wear.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn’t truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn’t come from your spirit and your soul, it’s an injustice to your position. And so, I’m really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.

All of my music is honest.

The worst crime is faking it.

I’ve got a great sense of humor, and if I’m able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that’s hugely flattering.

I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‚real life‘ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

If I could, I would not do anything else. I’d just be in the studio for my whole life. I would never go to parties, events, and red carpets. I would rather just be in the studio for the whole time. I don’t even care. Nobody has to know what I look like. I just want to make music.

I just want to be myself.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry – writing at writing.

I don’t intend to stop making music.

The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I’m conscious of the mainstream without selling out.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

I guess you could say it’s always been my destiny to be a performer.

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.

Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.

Football is unconditional love.

I am in the fighting game. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t watch the news, I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about other sports. I don’t care about anything I don’t need to care about. This is my sport: it is my life. I study it; I think about it all the time. Nothing else matters.

For me, it’s about becoming a mogul, owning my own projects, and establishing myself as a funding producer. That’s what’s big to me. The movies and all that stuff are great, but the fact that I’m in a position to do what I want to do, however I want to do it and when I want to do it is bigger.

It takes up enough of my time and interest just working on comedy. I just enjoy it and love doing it.

Whether I’m running on the beach without my shirt or whether I’m going out with my kids or going to church or going out to dinner – I don’t choose to insulate myself in engaging in real life. Hence, the public kind of almost knows me as much through my real life that they see through the rag mags.

Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows – and china.

I’ve known Ben Stiller for a minute. One of my first movies was ‚Along Came Polly.‘

Rap was my drug.

I love performing, you know, because, like I say, I’m a ham for this stuff.

When I’m really interested in something, I get superfocused on that. And I can spend hours upon hours not getting tired of reading about it and still be interested to learn more about it.

They’re right to think that about me, because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans, I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.

Alfred Hitchcock once told me, when I was analyzing a lot of things about his pictures, ‚Clint, you must remember, it’s only a movie.‘

Writing is my love. If you love something, you find a lot of time. I write for two hours a day, usually starting at midnight; at times, I start at 11.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.

Whatever I am, it’s natural… I don’t have to pretend to be aggressive, don’t have to show the opposition that I am on the field. Being aggressive comes naturally to me, helps me perform.

I love to dance, but my children tell me I shouldn’t. Can’t see why.

I don’t know that you can put a label on growth. I’m just me.

I am a professional sportswriter, among other things, and I take the games seriously. It is only one of my many powerful addictions, and I don’t mind admitting any of them.

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

The day I think I’m not enjoying the game and contributing the way I would like to, I’ll hang up my boots.

I just want to keep writing music.

I loved writing for kids, I loved talking to children about what I’d written, I don’t want to leave that behind.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.