I’ve been asking myself: ‚Why put together these things – CDs, albums?‘ The answer I came up with is, well, sometimes it’s artistically viable. It’s not just a random collection of songs. Sometimes the songs have a common thread, even if it’s not obvious or even conscious on the artists‘ part.
David ByrneWhen you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
EpictetusThe main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Stephen CoveyIf you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamPersonally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston ChurchillWhen you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.
Joyce MeyerLet everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheBut I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.
Stephen KingEverything in the world exists to end up in a book.
Hosea BallouOne great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
VoltaireI am the freest author in the world.
J. K. RowlingDoing the box set is one of those things where you get to rewrite your own history to some extent. We could take out some of the songs that we felt weren’t as strong as some of the others, so you look better.
David ByrneWhatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.
Mahatma GandhiIt is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
George WashingtonNo man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.
Napoleon HillMy whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.
Kendrick Lamar‚Recreative‘ is a word that I invented because in urban culture, with colloquialism, we invent so many slangs. I don’t like the way that ‚recreational‘ sounds – I don’t like to say I do a lot of ‚recreational‘ reading. I like to say that I read ‚recreatively.‘ I do a lot of ‚recreative‘ reading.
Kevin GatesI follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.
Lou HoltzIf you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.
Wayne DyerAll the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.
Carl JungImperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.
Thomas CarlyleI am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.
Lady GagaIt may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. LewisOpera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.
Terry PratchettIt is better to imitate ancient than modern work.
Leonardo da VinciI think that’s why I put my energy into making music. That’s how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time.
Kendrick LamarChoose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.
George Bernard ShawBy the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you’ve blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.
Richard M. NixonIt is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.
William JamesThoughts are mental energy; they’re the currency that you have to attract what you desire. Learn to stop spending that currency on thoughts you don’t want.
Wayne DyerOnce you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.
John F. KennedyO, had I but followed the arts!
William ShakespeareIt’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!
Brian EnoWhen I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.
Haruki MurakamiI write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane.
Taylor SwiftIt’s easy to get negative because you get beat down. You go through a few disappointments and it’s easy to stay in that negative frame of mind. Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is a whole cliche, but your attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.
Joel OsteenWhen I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
Lao TzuMorality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
Immanuel KantTo know oneself, one should assert oneself.
Albert CamusWhen one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.
Friedrich NietzscheWhat 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.
Billie EilishI’m not the most patient of people.
Kobe BryantPractice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.
EpictetusI wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.
David BowieI’m not the same man I used to be, I’m not out hell-raising, stuff like that. I am a changed man.
Mr. TThere is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
Samuel JohnsonThe mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman’s heart.
Oscar WildeThe more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinNot what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.
Thomas CarlyleNever regret what you don’t write.
Abraham LincolnI try to be the same person I was yesterday.
Colin PowellI think one of my pursuits over the years is trying to answer the question of, ‚What else can you do with a voice other than stand in front of a microphone and sing?‘
Brian EnoThe thing about the 600 words, I mean some day, you can do a very, very, very hard day’s work and not write a word, just revising, or you would scribble a few words.
J. K. RowlingIdleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.
Franz KafkaAs a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.
DiogenesTo love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Oscar WildeThe totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.
Ronald ReaganThe only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.
H. L. MenckenNo change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
Franz Kafka