I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

I usually don’t like to ‚spoon feed‘ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

I am a dangerous man when turned loose with a typewriter.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

You see things; and you say ‚Why?‘ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‚Why not?‘

When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

You don’t have to be a renowned artist like Q-Tip to try your hand at poetry. You don’t need any special equipment – that’s the beauty of it.

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

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

I design things to help people to hopefully express their personality.

Music is this divine thing, the closest that we can get to something divine. It’s like this instinct we all own, and some of us have found a way to hear that music and write it down and share it with people.

I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

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

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry ‚I could have thought of that‘ is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn’t, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.

I feel like my music has become a lot of things. It’s hard to label the evolution, but I like there to be an evolution. I just like to paint with all different kinds of colors.

All of my music is honest.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people.

I am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company.

I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

I feel very lucky to make a living from my imagination; I’m very grateful for that. I like that what I do is create. I’m feeling very lucky to have had the career I had. It’s gone much longer and bigger than I ever thought it would be.

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.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‚Don’t try.‘ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.

Generally, a writer of force is anywhere from 20 years to 200 years ahead of his generation.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

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.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

My songs are the door to every dream I’ve ever had and every success I’ve ever achieved.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

There are definitely people who disagree with certain creative decisions you make. Pleasing everyone is pretty hard.

The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people’s eyes before you even put out an album.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

I leave the genre labeling to other people. I really do. If I were to think too hard about it, that would stifle you creatively. If you think too hard about who other people want you to be as an artist, it stops you from being who you want to be as an artist.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.