I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

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.

I created myself. I have taught myself so much.

I have a terrifying long list of fears. Literally everything – diseases, spiders… and people getting tired of me.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

The truth is, I had always wanted to be a comedian, but I really didn’t have that kind of personality, and it’s a terrifying thing to say.

I’m not a regrets-type person.

Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this, it is impossible to be warned.

Egos are never nice. I have been a victim of it a lot of times in my career. Whenever I have used it, I have failed.

I don’t really regard myself as a political figure.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

I would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

I have an existential map. It has ‚You are here‘ written all over it.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

I’m half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That’s why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I’ve seen so many.

At one point I learned transcendental meditation. This was 30-something years ago. It took me back to the way that I naturally was as a child growing up way in the country, rarely seeing people. I was in that state of oneness with creation and it was as if I didn’t exist except as a part of everything.

I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.

You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

I used to wonder if it was God’s plan that I should be alone for so much of my life. But I found peace. I found happiness within people and the world.

Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.

My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that’s it. I don’t tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.

Everyone calls me Bruno; they don’t ever call me Peter – that was just my government name.

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

I feel confident imposing change on myself. It’s a lot more fun progressing than looking back. That’s why I need to throw curve balls.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

Mastery passes often for egotism.

I’m not who people expect me to be. I’m not Henry Kissinger.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‚blackness‘ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.

I’m not big on flak jackets and tie-dyed shirts. You know, that’s not me.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

One of the things I did when I discovered this huge importance of being vulnerable is very happily moved away from the shame research, because that’s such a downer, and people hate that topic. It’s not that vulnerability is the upside, but it’s better than shame, I guess.

I am a child but I have to think and act like a woman, this business forces you to.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

I like to write about love and love lost because I feel like there are so many different subcategories of emotions that you can possibly delve into.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

Don’t try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie. Study computers instead.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.