I have the ’77 Million Paintings‘ running in my studio a lot of the time. Occasionally I’ll look up from what I’m doing and I think, ‚God, I’ve never seen anything like that before!‘ And that’s a real thrill.

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.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

I want to be an artist, not… a celluloid aphrodisiac.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

I always dreamt of holding the bat and winning games for India. That was my inspiration to take up cricket.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

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.

My drive is other people’s success.

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.

It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.

My purpose is to make exciting music, and I feel like I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life, so there’s no pressure.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

You should treat a muse like a fairy.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

In every walk of life, you must have leaders. An education in the spiritual world, in the labor field, in the agricultural field, we must have leaders.

Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.

I got a greater purpose. God put something in my heart to get across, and that’s what I’m going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.

I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

I’m telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.

All good art is an indiscretion.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

There is a fundamental question we all have to face. How are we to live our lives; by what principles and moral values will we be guided and inspired?

I would like to see a future where artists think that they have a right to contemplate things like global warming.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

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.

I think New York has evolved in my work just the way the city has.

A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.

With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‚Are people interested?‘ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.

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 cannot with any real integrity perform songs I’ve done for 25 years. I don’t need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

It’s a curse. I ask God to take this away from me all the time. I do not like being an artist.

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

The artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.