I know I’m a good professional, I know that no one’s harder on me than myself and that’s never going to change, under any circumstances.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

I’ve been blessed to be somebody that’s been climbing that success mountain top for years of hard work, you know, but now it’s all connecting. And now, the whole world is watching, you know what I’m saying, and it feels good ‚cause it’s good energy. This is all positive vibes, and good vibes and good energy, so it feels incredible.

I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn’t think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.

Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.

It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.

I am not designed to come second or third. I am designed to win.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I’m always going to feel everything. It’s my nature.

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.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough.

I always wanted a family.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

I’m not the same man I used to be, I’m not out hell-raising, stuff like that. I am a changed man.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

So many people live with anger and unforgiveness, and many of them are Christians.

One of the things I realized is that if you do not take control over your time and your life, other people will gobble it up. If you don’t prioritize yourself, you constantly start falling lower and lower on your list, your kids fall lower and lower on your list.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.

It isn’t sufficient just to want – you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

I’m 31 now. I think I’m beginning to understand what life is, what romance is, and what a relationship means.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

I’ve done some analysis of the biblical stories as part of my psychological work. I knew that I had more to do, and every time I’ve done it, it’s been extremely valuable. It makes me a better teacher because I have a richer understanding of cultural history.

Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.

I’d be so bored if I wasn’t going out there, knowing that I could still do it. So, I’m going to work hard to be ready to go, and I still plan on playing for a long time.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

You don’t have to give way to careless speech or complaining. You don’t have to let your feelings get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

These things bring you to reality as to how fragile you are; at the same moment you are doing something that nobody else is able to do. The same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.

I sometimes have a tendency to walk on the dark side.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.