I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

I think what’s important is for us to decipher what is honest and what is dishonest and be accepting of those things and not operating from fear.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

I was a little worried that young people would think the only game was being political and manipulative when really the bigger game is being so good at what you do that nobody can argue with your results.

I go to all these photo shoots, and each time I figure out something new about myself and what I want to wear.

I’m not looking to freak people out – eating rodents or bugs. I don’t do that anymore.

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

I had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be ‚sexy,‘ even before I knew what the word was.

‚They‘ are the people that don’t believe in you, that say that you won’t succeed. We stay away from ‚They.‘

People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

I like the idea of working in different genres and transcending genres and hopefully finding success, and ultimately make movies people like.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

I didn’t always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

The reason that Apple is able to create products like the iPad is because we’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.

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

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

I let people fill in the blanks on their own. If they want to think about their ex, that’s fine. If they want to think about maybe who one of my exes is, then that’s fine. And it might not be right, because I’m the only one who knows what these songs are really about. It’s the one shred of privacy I have in the matter.

Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

My mother and my father have been married 50 years, and he’s just started to understand that something’s wrong with the system. He accepted the whole thing, you see. Yet this industrious kind of engagement didn’t bring him the success, according to American terms, that he wanted. I was probably affected by this very much. In fact, I know I was.

The most successful detectives owe their success to noticing small signs. Scouts are natural detectives and never let the smallest detail escape them. These small things are called by Scouts ‚Sign.‘

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

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think ‚outside the box,‘ people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.

We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

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

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

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.

I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I’m a writer… I write.

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, ‚Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?‘ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

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

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

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.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

Fame hit me like a ton of bricks.

Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

When I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it.

I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.

In any court-like environment of power, you will inevitably find people who are drawn to those who are successful or powerful, not out of admiration, but out of secret envy.

Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.