I have a little bit of PTSD when I hear a big bang or a loud noise or keys – I jump out of my skin.

I do suffer from depression, I suppose. Which isn’t that unusual. You know, a lot of people do.

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

Many of my fans often tell me that they listen to my songs to get through things. And therefore, obviously, I hope that they can picture being in a place where things are better… I hope my songs can bring people to a calm place.

I write because writing is something that I have to do. And it doesn’t matter whether people like it or not. When I write, I feel the pressure and anxiety that come with taking an empty piece of paper and trying to fill it with something from your own consciousness.

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.

Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you’re crazy.

There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.

Generally speaking, if a human being never shows anger, then I think something’s wrong. He’s not right in the brain.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

You might be tough, but you can only be so tough for so long, you know what I mean? The brain can only take so much damage. The body can only take so much damage.

To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

I wonder how many decisions we make every day. I believe it’s probably hundreds. We decide whether or not to get out of bed, what we’ll eat, what we’ll do, what we’ll think about, what we’ll say… and on and on.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.

Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centred and even solipsistic.

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.

Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad.

We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year!

A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

I felt like I had a really bad case of writer’s block… Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can’t get it out, I start feeling bad about myself – a lot of self-loathing.

My head’s never really quiet. The only time I can get it to turn off is if I watch ‚CSI‘ or ‚Law & Order,‘ where I have to follow the crime. If I can’t turn my head off during that, I know I’ve really got a problem.

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

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.

Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we’ve always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us.

Depression begins with disappointment. When disappointment festers in our soul, it leads to discouragement.

If you cannot concentrate, you are not so happy.

There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

Hearing voices no one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

Seeing Pax get extra-nervous about which shirt he is going to wear when he meets Aung San Suu Kyi, I get very moved. He rightfully doesn’t get nervous going to a movie premiere; he gets nervous going to meet her.

Worry – a God, invisible but omnipotent. It steals the bloom from the cheek and lightness from the pulse; it takes away the appetite, and turns the hair gray.

It’s very inexpensive to give a compliment.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.

For me, there have been times when an action movie, even a ‚Tomb Raider,‘ has helped me get out of myself and be physical again. It’s like therapy.

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.

The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.

Overnight stardom can be harmful to your mental health. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication – it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness – it is all that I have – and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

Anxiety and spiritual searching have been consistent themes with me, and that figures into my worldview. But I tend to make my songs sound like relationship songs.

Exercise is really important to me – it’s therapeutic. So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.

When I’m nervous, I stutter, and I had to keep stopping and starting.

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?