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 production and songwriting and the environment around those vocals are not inspired by R&B at all.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

I hope that people around the world will be as inspired as I am to step up and to speak out on behalf of girls around the world who struggle to go to school.

With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look – for dizzier heights.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‚Don’t try.‘ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.

When I’m writing a record, I kind of don’t listen to much music. Just because I want to be inspired solely on the emotion; just based on how it feels.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

I like my fair share of board games.

I knew early on that I wanted to entertain in some form. And I knew I would work as hard as anyone to do it.

Young people can create beautiful things.

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.

You think I’m going to ask these sweet 14 year olds to ask their parents to buy a $100 ticket then run around in latex and lip sync? No way.

There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it’s reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She’s been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

I always entertain great hopes.

If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you’re sort of writing the same song over and over again.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

I have crazy claustrophobic dreams, weird elevator dreams where the elevator closes in and all of a sudden I am lying down – oh my God, it’s a casket. Just freaky stuff like that.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

In ‚Changeling,‘ I tried to show something you’d never see nowadays – a kid sitting and looking at the radio. Just sitting in front of the radio and listening. Your mind does the rest.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

The only thing I ever wanted to be was a professional football player.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

In order to fly, all one must do is simply miss the ground.

We have one planet in our solar system that’s habitable, and that’s the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.

Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.

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

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.

I was arrested for lip-syncing karaoke.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

WWE is a space where I thrived, and I loved, and I still do. I love connecting with an audience; that is the greatest thing about going back to WWE.

I know that if I had a television in my flat I would convince myself that everything on it was really interesting. I would say, ‚I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!‘ is so sociologically fascinating that I think I’d better watch.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

I remember being in Japan when Destiny’s Child put out ‚Independent Women,‘ and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.

Writers and books are cheap dates, especially when you compare the cost of a book with a ticket to the opera – or an NHL game.

We’re all dreamers.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

When I heard ‚Jesus, Take the Wheel,‘ I was like, OK. Some people look at it as a song written for an American Idol, Carrie Underwood, who is wonderful. But when you’re a songwriter listening to a song, you hear something else. I heard that song, and wow.

I’m standing behind a wall of jokes. You don’t know about my personal life, my girlfriends, or what I do when I’m not on the road. There’s this guy, this comedian, and this is how he thinks, but people really don’t know anything about me.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.