I don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.

Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything.

Collecting facts is important. Knowledge is important. But if you don’t have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere.

You should hurry up and acquire the cigar habit. It’s one of the major happinesses. And so much more lasting than love, so much less costly in emotional wear and tear.

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

We must use time creatively.

Some people mistakenly think nature is very nice and benevolent and never betrays.

I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

I’m fascinated by musicians who don’t completely understand their territory; that’s when you do your best work.

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

Art is going to make a bigger comeback than ever. That’s the upside to things getting challenging.

The darkness is really out there. It’s not something that’s in my head, just. It’s in my work because it’s in the world.

Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.

I don’t call myself a Buddhist. I’m a free spirit. I believe I’m here on earth to admire and enjoy it; that’s my religion.

I like surprises.

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

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

When I was 18, I thought that, to be a romantic, you couldn’t live past 30.

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

I think a poet is anybody who wouldn’t call himself a poet.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

I don’t have stylistic loyalty. That’s why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

I think I’ve committed the one really bad English crime, which is I’ve risen above my station. I was supposed to be a pop star, and suddenly I’m claiming that I’m an artist of some kind.

Metal, I love metal sounds. If I have a stick with me, I just drag it across a fence. And all fences make different sounds, just like people when they laugh.

People like Frank Zappa and Bryan Ferry knew we could pick and choose from the history of music, stick things together looking for friction and energy. They were more like playwrights; they invented characters and wrote a life around them.

I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane.

Sometimes I get the start of a story from a memory, an anecdote, but that gets lost and is usually unrecognizable in the final story.

The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world.

He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

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 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.

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

I’m still in love with what I do, with the idea of making things up, so hours when I write always feel like very blessed hours to me.

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.

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.

Fun is good.

We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.