I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.

All of my music is honest.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

You can’t have it all, all at once. Who – man or woman – has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

For me, it’s about the way I carry myself and the way I treat other people. My relationship and how I feel about God and what He does for me, is something deeply personal. It’s where I came from, my family, I was brought up in a religious household and that’s very important to me.

If your inner life is not producing what you would like on the outside, don’t be discouraged… just be willing to change.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

I already am a product.

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don’t know who or what, maybe myself.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

Many people in this world are still so identified with every thought that arises in their head. There is not the slightest space of awareness there.

The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

Integrity means that you are the same in public as you are in private.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

Brad was a huge surprise to me. I think we were both the last two people who were looking for a relationship. I certainly wasn’t. I was quite content to be a single mom with Mad.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

I’m so nervous. I’ve always been nervous, ever since I was a kid.

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

I just feel so much more comfortable and confident every game I play.

When I was young, I could not imagine being old. My mother said, and the doctor confirmed, that I had an unusual amount of energy; and it followed me into young adulthood.

I tend not to like an awful lot of what is going out under my name now because it is just all product. Who needs it?

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

The wisest hustler can suddenly fall for the worst tramp and lose all of his money on her. The hustler is aware of his own weaknesses and openings to con. This awareness is his edge.

Somebody’s boring me. I think it’s me.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

I look at where I’m at today and realize that most of my success is owed to the mentors that was in my life.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!

Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.

I’ve always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder.