I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night – and I’d dream about it being me.

My dad always said, ‚Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.‘

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

I think television has had a vast, unbelievable impact on us.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

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.

You have to dream before your dreams can come true.

I spent much of my childhood in northern Quebec, and often there was no radio, no television – there wasn’t a lot to entertain us. When it rained, I stayed inside reading, writing, drawing.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

Everybody has a purpose.

Standing ovations have become far too commonplace. What we need are ovations where the audience members all punch and kick one another.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

It’s every girl’s dream to be a cover girl!

Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

God has equipped you to handle difficult things. In fact, He has already planted the seeds of discipline and self-control inside you. You just have to water those seeds with His Word to make them grow!

When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

I’ve never had writer’s block.

The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

Stand-up is hard.

I know some of the best Dolly Parton jokes. I made ‚em up myself.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‚I’m with you kid. Let’s go.‘

My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

I was arrested for lip-syncing karaoke.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

It’s like a jar of salad dressing sitting on a shelf… most of the seasoning settles to the bottom of the bottle. But when you shake that bottle up, all the ingredients mix together and then the dressing can add flavor to a salad. In the same way, we can stir ourselves up and regain the reverence, respect and awe we once had for the Lord.

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.

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.

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.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulation of wordage, a more flowing concept, in a hope for a more new and lively path. I do personalize at times, but this only for the grace and elan of the dance.

Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure – that of being Salvador Dali.

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

I always say I wanna work with Alicia Keys. I’m in awe of her.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue.

There is a fundamental question we all have to face. How are we to live our lives; by what principles and moral values will we be guided and inspired?

When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Art’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

If I could have worked from the time I was born until I was 18 and never had to work again, I would have done it.