I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

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

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

My imagination is a twisted place.

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.

I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor.

The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

Nothing induces me to read a novel except when I have to make money by writing about it. I detest them.

When you pick up a book, everyone knows it’s imaginary. You don’t have to pretend it’s not a book. We don’t have to pretend that people don’t write books. That omniscient third-person narration isn’t the only way to do it. Once you’re writing in the first person, then the narrator is a writer.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn’t even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we’d never have had the light bulb.

Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.

I always have to be writing.

My only scheme was to be a rapper.

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.

I love to sing and I really love to write, but in terms of being onstage, I’m not that comfortable, which I think is sort of clear.

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

Naturally, my stories are about women – I’m a woman. I don’t know what the term is for men who write mostly about men. I’m not always sure what is meant by ‚feminist.‘ In the beginning, I used to say, ‚Well, of course I’m a feminist.‘ But if it means that I follow a kind of feminist theory, or know anything about it, then I’m not.

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course, you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place, you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

I will carry on writing, to be sure. But I don’t know if I would want to publish again after Harry Potter.

I always want to create and do things, or draw.

Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.

You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

A lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this career of mine.

For 20 years, Simon & Schuster asked me, ‚Why don’t you write your autobiography?‘

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.

In a lot of ways, success is much harder than I thought it would be. I figured that you’d get here and then everything would be happily ever after. But, it’s hard work, almost harder once you’re successful because you’ve got to maintain it.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

I think you can give a pure artistic product if you understand how to build your own industry.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.