I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.

You don’t sign up for a divorce when you get married. It’s very painful. But it’s taught me a great deal about myself.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings.

I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him.

I don’t need to be vindicated, and I don’t want attention.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

Swearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

I’ve always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of – I just sung a lot.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

I can do whatever I want.

In my father’s generation, the product was 80 percent of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20 percent. It now seems that 80 percent of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I’m wearing.

If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

A lot of people have said I’d have probably done better in my career if I hadn’t looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn’t be blamed because you want to look pretty.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

Choose people who lift you up.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

Because we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.

I can express myself.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

I just feel so much more comfortable and confident every game I play.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

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

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now.

I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don’t like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don’t like to be shaped by society.

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

I’m not this horrible, evil person.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

There’s a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps. What’s the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it’s exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That’s really cool. That’s the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.