I first met Bev Shea while in Chicago when he was on Moody Radio. As a young man starting my ministry, I asked Bev if he would join me. He said yes, and for over 60 years we had the privilege of ministering together across the country and around the world.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

And of course to work with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and work with a wonderful, beautiful script directed by Nancy Meyers, it was really for me a dream come true.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

Writing a song is so personal. You have to have trust in someone you’re working with; otherwise, you’re not gonna come out with something that’s really you.

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

The basis of our partnership strategy and our partnership approach: We build the social technology. They provide the music.

You have to look for teachers. If you want to be a mechanic, go hang out with mechanics.

You’ve got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.

Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!

Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.

When you have that respect from your teammates, it makes it a lot more comfortable.

Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.

But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem.

If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.

You can’t choose up sides on a round world.

I was approached about having my own network many, many years ago. There were some people who wanted to start up a network, and I didn’t want to get that involved in the business aspect of it.

I’ve said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

‚Two Voices,‘ from my album with Peter Schwalm, is an intact dream-poem. I awoke one night with an image of a piece of paper and all the words of the poem written on it, so I just blundered down to the kitchen table and ‚copied it out.‘

I don’t know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

I’ve been pleased to work with so many wonderful stars through the years. This has been an amazing journey. I hope it continues.

I always tell people that you should only hire people to be on your team if you would work for them.

I’m not a genius. I need other people to get the perfect information. When we have this, we will decide to sign or sell a player.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.

June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.

Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what goes on in the Universe.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

I don’t want a brat on my team.

The best way a mentor can prepare another leader is to expose him or her to other great people.

There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.

Older and wiser voices can help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many great directors. Different styles, as well, like Gus Van Sant. He just does the casting and the milieu and let’s you do your thing, quietly. Bertolucci, who can talk to you about your internal world in quite a creative way or just say, ‚Well, put your hand over here.‘

Partnering with Atlantic Records creates the opportunity to take what we’re doing to the next level, without compromising.

We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

We can succeed only by concert. It is not, ‚Can any of us imagine better,‘ but, ‚Can we all do better?‘

To not be modest about it, you’ll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I’ve worked with have done their best work by far with me.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

The most genius thing about the way I create is to create with other geniuses.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

We will naturally pursue our goals on the strength of our own resources, skills and enterprise. But, we know that we will be more successful when we do this in partnership with the world.

If two smart, intelligent, clever guys sit together on a table, and you both want the same, where can be the problem? We all want to be successful.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

Synergy is better than my way or your way. It’s our way.

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad… he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

I’m a trained fine artist. I went to art school from the time I was 5 years old. I was, like, a prodigy out of Chicago. I’d been in national competitions from the age of 14.

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the ‚my way or the highway‘ approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

I’m trying my best to keep up with all this new technology, and I surround myself with all these wonderful people that are in the know and kind of help me out with all that.

Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half.

Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.