I always knew who I was, and I always ran from my true purpose… I know what my job is. And I always ran from it.

One cannot violate the promptings of one’s nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

‚Harry Potter‘ gave me back self respect. Harry gave me a job to do that I loved more than anything else.

I didn’t consider myself a fashion designer at all at the time of punk. I was just using fashion as a way to express my resistance and to be rebellious. I came from the country, and by the time I got to London, I considered myself to be very stupid. It was my ambition to understand the world I live in.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.

For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably a very different world than the one people expect that I would be in.

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.

I’m just trying to be myself. I’m not trying to be anyone else.

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

Most of us enter adult life with great ambitions for how we will start our own ventures, but the harshness of life wears us down. We settle into some job and slowly give in to the illusion that our bosses care about us and our future, that they spend time thinking of our welfare.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

I think that everybody needs four things in life. Everybody needs something to do regardless of age. Everybody needs someone to love. Everybody needs something to hope for, and, of course, everybody needs someone to believe in.

I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else – God is in this person’s life. You can – you must – try to seek God in every human life.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

Fear is exciting for me.

No one can live without relationship. You may withdraw into the mountains, become a monk, a sannyasi, wander off into the desert by yourself, but you are related. You cannot escape from that absolute fact. You cannot exist in isolation.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

I came to China to follow my star and to steep myself in the raw regions of the universe.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

At the end of the day, who I really and truly am is a little girl who loved to play the piano.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.

I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom.

I have retired, but if there’s anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

My father used to have an expression. He’d say, ‚Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community.‘

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

I created myself. I have taught myself so much.

The best part about being in your thirties is you know what works for you.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

To be in any way a positive contribution, that’s all anybody wants to be. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. I wanted to be an artist, be a mother. You want to feel that in your life you’ve been of use, in whatever way that comes out.

Me, as a person, I grow. I’m like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

I go to all these photo shoots, and each time I figure out something new about myself and what I want to wear.

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

The purpose is clear. It is safety with solvency. The country is entitled to both.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

You have young men of color in many communities who are more likely to end up in jail or in the criminal justice system than they are in a good job or in college. And, you know, part of my job, that I can do, I think, without any potential conflicts, is to get at those root causes.

I was always interested – I mean, it’s kind of part of your job – I was always interested in the camera.

I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older, you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me.

Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.

To live alone is the fate of all great souls.