I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

Back in the day, what motivated me was overcoming myself. Now I believe in being a leader. I’ve done it all – I’m good. Now, it’s about setting an example for others to follow. I can’t just talk it – I have to live it.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse.

I think I do myself a disservice by comparing myself to Steve Jobs and Walt Disney and human beings that we’ve seen before. It should be more like Willy Wonka… and welcome to my chocolate factory.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

My style has always been my own, just like my flow and style.

You can be young without money but you can’t be old without it.

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.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

Real riches are the riches possessed inside.

I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

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

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

I’ve been reckless, but I’m not a rebel without a cause.

To live is to find out for yourself what is true, and you can do this only when there is freedom, when there is continuous revolution inwardly, within yourself.

Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

Though the Jazz Age continued it became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.

Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Within all of us is a divine capacity to manifest and attract all that we need and desire.

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

I always wanted to know, and I always used to daydream, about what it would be like to stand on a really big stage and sing songs for a lot of people, songs that I had written… Daydreaming was kind of my No. 1 thing when I was little, because I didn’t have much of a social life going on.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

Everyone has their style and your style explains a lot about who you are – you feel me? I’ve had style since childhood, so I like to dress how I feel. But maybe I get carried away by some trends.

When I was fourteen and first started going out, I always wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. So I would go to the club in a polo T-shirt and pants and sneakers and a hat on backward, just so I would not be dressed like other girls.

Mothers and daughters generally have fairly complex relationships, and ours was made much more so by Mother’s illness. She had Parkinson’s disease, which was not diagnosed for a long time… All that made me very self-protective, because for one thing, I didn’t want to get trapped.

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

I don’t have the best track record with quotes.

I’ve never been a jealous person, and I’ve never felt built up by someone else’s failure – that’s a cheap thrill.

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.

As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become.

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

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

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.

I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, ‚There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.‘ But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

I put my flaws on front street. So the world accepted my flaws, so I don’t have any flaws.

I’ve done the bad-boy thing. It was fun for a good three months. But the thing about bad boys is, you have to keep in mind, you’re never gonna marry a bad boy.

Satan wants us to constantly focus on everything that is wrong with us and look at how far we still have to go. But God desires for us to rejoice in how far we have already come.

Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.

Wanting to feel good is synonymous with wanting to feel God.

Never complain. Never explain.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.