I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

In the world today many people rightfully feel entitled to have success and the good things in life, but they usually understand it will require sacrifice and hard work.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

Faith Hill is a big role model.

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

Americans never quit.

I always wanted a great love affair: something that feels big and full, really honest, and enough. No moment should feel slight, false, or a little off. For me, it had to be everything.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

I’m just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

I always thought about working in England because of the kind of football, the intensity of football. Liverpool was first choice.

No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.

I have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

An artist needn’t be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

You gotta make sure the listener is listening to you, so if you put it into a song, often times, if the song is striking enough, then you can really deliver the story most effectively while keeping the ear of the listener the whole time.

As a father, I always want my son to be perfect. When he was young, I tried to train him in martial arts, but he said, ‚I don’t want to become like Bruce Lee’s son, with everybody telling me how good my father was.‘ I just think my son is too lazy.

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

I listen to music all day every day. I can’t not listen to music. It’s kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it’s what I love, and it’s all I care about, so I’m good with it.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Always do whatever’s next.

You have to be smart. The easy days are over.

If I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place.

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.

It takes up enough of my time and interest just working on comedy. I just enjoy it and love doing it.

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

A ‚scream‘ is always just that – a noise and not music.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

I cook, I create, I’m incredibly excited by what I do, I’ve still got a lot to achieve.

We tend to mistake music for the physical object.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

I just have a thing in my brain that when I’m about to do something that’s genuine or authentic, I think of it in song form. I’ll be like, ‚Yo, this is a human emotion that no one talks about.‘

There is no substitute for victory.

In high school I wanted to be a rock star and was in a lot of bands.