I believe in being an innovator.

Young people can create beautiful things.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today.

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

What inspires me about rap is that it’s written in an almost poetic way. I just think it’s so cool.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

When we speak of faith – the faith that can move mountains – we are not speaking of faith in general but of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, ‚What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?‘ And, ‚How does creativity apply across the board?‘

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

I don’t set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

I believe God’s keeping the records, and I believe you will be rewarded even in this life. Somehow, some way, God will make it up to you. It may be He protected you from an accident you never knew. You can’t give God something without God giving you more in return, whether it’s peace or joy or satisfaction.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

The good thing about having chemistry is, when you get to the improv section of a scene, you’ve got somebody to feed off. It can go on and on and on, and the sky’s the limit.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

In this quest to seek and find God in all things, there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I’m only really alive when I’m writing.

Propaganda is amazing. People can be led to believe anything.

Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.

I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.

Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I’ll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master… it’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.

At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.

When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich.

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.

I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‚It sounds good!‘ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.

I don’t believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship, I am disposed to endulge the professors of Christianity in the church, that road to heaven which to them shall seem the most direct plainest easiest and least liable to exception.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

Let us have no machine-made ornament at all; it is all bad and worthless and ugly.

Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

Those who believe that they are exclusively in the right are generally those who achieve something.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.