I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.

You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

Any artist, the work you do, if it’s a painting or if it’s a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else’s life. That’s what’s fun about sharing art.

What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

You’ll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

Until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire, you will be neither successful nor happy.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

I could give a flying flip about doing promo because, no disrespect, nobody put me in the position that I’m in.

My moms always told me, ‚How long you gonna play the victim?‘ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

I’ve been called a recluse. There’s definitely truth in that. I like to spend time alone.

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.

Get up tomorrow early in the morning, and earlier than you did today, and do the best that you can. Always stay near me, for tomorrow I will have much to do and more than I ever had, and tomorrow blood will leave my body above the breast.

I enjoy working with complicated equipment. A lot of my things started just with a rhythm box, but I feed it through so many things that what comes out sounds very complex and rich.

Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.

I’m totally myself.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‚That’s life.‘

There ought to be an artistic depot where the artist need only hand in his artwork in order to receive what he asks for. As things are, one must be half a business man, and how can one understand – good heavens! – that’s what I really call troublesome.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

I want to make something that is breathtaking. Of course, you can’t make something that is always breathtaking, or you would never be able to breathe. You would collapse.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

I always want to create and do things, or draw.

I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.

The true identity theft is not financial. It’s not in cyberspace. It’s spiritual. It’s been taken.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

If I wouldn’t have found Courtney, I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

I wanted to get a job being creative, and I did.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems – most life situations are – but find out if you have a problem at this moment. Do you have a problem now?

As I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

A record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.

When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

I’m not this horrible, evil person.

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.