I have nothing to declare except my genius.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.

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

Magic has five championships. I have five championships. I’m pretty sure we both know what we’re doing.

You don’t have to be a renowned artist like Q-Tip to try your hand at poetry. You don’t need any special equipment – that’s the beauty of it.

I was everything an R&B singer wasn’t. I wasn’t in shape. I wasn’t a pretty boy.

The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

I say that in the most humble way: I always knew that I could perform with the best of ‚em and I could deliver with the best of ‚em.

If I didn’t have my films as an outlet for all the different sides of me, I would probably be locked up.

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.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

I’d rather tell you how I really feel.

I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.

We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

I’m never nervous.

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’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty.

Be happy with being you. Love your flaws. Own your quirks. And know that you are just as perfect as anyone else, exactly as you are.

People always say when they meet me that I’m not what they expect. I assume they think I’m this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

My fat never made me less money.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

A song is anything that can walk by itself.

I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny.

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

Confidence comes from discipline and training.

I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.

I’m not comparing myself with anyone, but I am very confident about my captaincy, as I have already led India and in the IPL also. I have confidence I can bring out each player’s ability fully and also give them a lot of confidence… I would like to stick to what I know best and what I have confidence in.

This has always been my life and no one else’s, and that’s how it’s always been since the day I came in it.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you’re always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.

Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

You know, when Michael Jackson does the moonwalk, he’s showing off! When Prince or Hendrix do a guitar solo, it’s confidence! I would hate to be at a show and some nervous wreck is sweating up there and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be there.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

I felt like, for so many years – and I still even feel it – as a girl, you can’t really expect to go on stage and dress like a boy and jump around and scream with the audience and mosh and stuff, and every time that happens, I feel really proud.

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.

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

I’m not a sheep.

I don’t think anybody in America ought to be scared.

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

I don’t think I’d ever apologise for music I make, no.

Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.

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.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

I have never felt more confident in myself, more clear on who I am as a woman. But I am constantly thinking about my own health and making sure that I’m eating right and getting exercise and watching the aches and pains. I want to be this really fly 80-90-year old.

We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.

I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.

Her body calculated to a millimeter to suggest a bud yet guarantee a flower.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

Genius is patience.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

If you gonna wear the mohawk, you stick with it. You don’t just be dibby-dabbing. You make up your mind.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.