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

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!

Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It’s rage, it’s creativity, it’s pain, it’s hurt, but it’s the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music.

I was never interested in being powerful or famous. But once I got to film school and learned about movies, I just fell in love with it. I didn’t care what kind of movies I made.

When I am playing baseball, I give it all that I have on the ball field. When the ball game is over, I certainly don’t take it home. My little girl who is sitting out there wouldn’t know the difference between a third strike and a foul ball. We don’t talk about baseball at home.

For a creative writer possession of the ‚truth‘ is less important than emotional sincerity.

Starting your own business isn’t just a job – it’s a way of life.

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

I was going to go to a four-year college and be an anthropologist or to an art school and be an illustrator when a friend convinced me to learn photography at the University of Southern California. Little did I know it was a school that taught you how to make movies! It had never occurred to me that I’d ever have any interest in filmmaking.

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

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Anything I’ve ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.

My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.

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 truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

All I can do is be me, whoever that is.

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.

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.

A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.

There weren’t a lot of career opportunities in crazy-fast hardcore punk, so you didn’t have a lot of ambition, just the love and passion to play music with your friends.

I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.

Music is in my DNA!

Key is never be afraid of being yourself. Never!

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

I’m sticking to the script, I’m putting that organic feeling back in the game.

I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching.

I am a fan of the ‚Rocky‘ films, and ‚Rocky 4‘ is my favourite. I also like ‚The Warriors.‘

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

This above all; to thine own self be true.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

The thing about the truth is, not a lot of people can handle it.

You can be passionate about anything.

You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.

Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.

I love that I can tell the truth and have people laugh at it.

I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

I am an Addictive Personality, they say, a natural slave to passion – and many Doctors have warned me against it. I am a High-risk Patient.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.

I think if you make a good movie, people walk away arguing.

I’ve been writing my entire life, and I’ll always write.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn’t much. But the things that I’m really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I’m not successful, what do I have?

I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.

Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.

Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

I’m here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.

Yeah, I’m an open book.