I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

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.

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

A big ego means that you have some confidence in your abilities, really, and that you’re prepared to take the risk of trying them out.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

I’m not into albums that are meant to sound perfect.

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.

There’s poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don’t like doing what people expect me to do.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

If you’re performing music that is not who you are or where you’re at, it is painful. It’s painful for the performer and for the audience.

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

If tomorrow I want to release a rock album or I want to release a bachata album, nobody can tell me anything – why can’t I?

I try not to go around looking like a hag.

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.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

My apartment is my stage, and my bedroom is my stage – they’re just not stages you’re allowed to see.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

The fact is that when you do something from your heart, you leave a heart print.

I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‚em out, I pick the round.

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

Well I have a microphone and you don’t so you will listen to every damn word I have to say!

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.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

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.

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.

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.

I don’t want to be fake. I’m just being me. And I have the power to break stereotypes and whatever useless rules that society puts on us.

Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don’t think the press has understood me.

I have never used Auto-Tune in a live television performance, and I have never used Auto-Tune in any of my concerts. That is a promise.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?

I’m not afraid to write my feelings in songs.

One of life’s terrible truths is that women like guys who seem to know what they’re doing.

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.

No one tells me what to do with my music. Real. My mom doesn’t tell what to say, how is someone else going to?

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

I won’t let people write anything they want to about me.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

When I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.

To me, if you’re trying to impress a girl, get a date, they’re gonna like that more because you’re a confident guy. That’s what it comes down to.

I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn’t write? But that fortunately hasn’t proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

I’m not trying to be sexy. It’s just my way of expressing myself when I move around.

A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.

I’m not afraid to look bad on the screen.

It’s much more fun to play something you’re nothing like than what you are… It’s much easier to hide yourself in a character.

It’s important for me to let my fans know I really don’t care. I’m confident.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

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 never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘