I have nothing to declare except my genius.

I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way – I hope it never will.

All that self-expression has just created a generation of morons, hooked on an endless appetite for rubbish.

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.

I’m gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they’re gonna like. It doesn’t really matter.

If you’re in a workplace you don’t like right now, be encouraged because God will use it for your good. Think about it this way: He wants you to be a light in the darkness – and He’s putting His confidence in you!

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.

Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius.

An artist or a creative person of any kind goes about their work because it’s their path, it’s what excites them, it’s what aligns their soul with who they truly are, who they showed up to be.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

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.

Freedom lies in being bold.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

I wouldn’t use the word ‚scared‘ for my role as Hitchcock, but it was my most insecure. Taking on such a formidable, giant personality such as Hitchcock; he was one of the great geniuses of world cinema. Sheer genius.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

It was very lucky for me as a writer that I studied the physical sciences rather than English. I wrote for my own amusement. There was no kindly English professor to tell me for my own good how awful my writing really was. And there was no professor with the power to order me what to read, either.

In a sense I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

I still derive immense pleasure from remembering how many hod-carrying brickies were encouraged to put on lurex tights and mince up and down the high street, having been assured by know-it-alls like me that a smidgen of blusher really attracted the birds.

There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

I always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.

Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

I can hold my own when it comes to burping. I’ve got a good feeling that I could win a championship.

Confidence is always a good thing to have going into the weekend. Especially where it’s quite difficult to put the lap together.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

Your teammates give you the confidence. They give me the confidence all year, all postseason.

Rap was more of a release for me, a journal.

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

My personal feelings are my personal feelings. I don’t want to express them with anyone except for a very few people. It doesn’t do any good. It really doesn’t.

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive.

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

I do have tatoos, and I do wear leather, but there are other sides of me, that my film express.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

Only the insecure strive for security.

I feel confident imposing change on myself. It’s a lot more fun progressing than looking back. That’s why I need to throw curve balls.

Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.

If you’re living in your time, you cannot help but to write about the things that are important.

This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty.

For some reason, I’m really comfortable talking about my personal life in songs.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

I’m not the most attractive fella. I’m not a Billy Dee Williams. Personality is everything.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

There’s a reason that I have confidence out there, and it’s about how I prepare for games and for series and seasons and whatnot, so we’ve got to stick with that kind of thought process.

When I got somethin‘ to say, I’ll say it.

Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.

I’m not a star. I don’t feel I’m so great. So how can I make you feel great just because you’ve got my signature on a piece of paper?

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

I just have a relationship with my imagination. It’s like my friend, almost.