I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.

Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

My drive is other people’s success.

I try to use my experience and the fact that I grew up in the ghetto – I tell people you don’t have to rob or steal to get out of the ghetto.

All of my writing is God-given.

To me, the most important artists in my career are Arcangel and Balvin. Arcangel gave me the push, the respect in the streets.

Never regret what you don’t write.

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

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.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

Music is really driving my whole life.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You’re trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren’t very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

I don’t control my writing – it controls me.

To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That’s what Norman Mailer did. That’s what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that’s what I do – that’s what I mean to do.

Synergy is better than my way or your way. It’s our way.

I love the song ‚I Hope You Dance‘ by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.

If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.

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.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin – find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.

I love those who do not know how to live for today.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

I would like to do a duet with Taylor Hanson, because I have loved Hanson since I was 8.

Hope is the magic carpet that transports us from the present moment into the realm of infinite possibilities.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

We’re all dreamers.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

I just love working hard. I love being part of a team; I love working toward a common goal.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

Facebook are an amazing team, a brilliant team. It’s a technology that brings people together.

I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

Every day, the people I meet inspire me… every day, they make me proud… every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

I believe that when you think of the negative, and you get up discouraged – ‚There’s nothing good in my future‘ – I really believe it almost ties the hands of God. God works where there’s an attitude of faith. I believe faith is all about hope.

I am confident that partnering my Dollywood Company with a great company like Gaylord will create something truly special.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

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

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.