I listen to my old records and I think, ‚How did I ever get on the radio?‘

It’s nice, I think, when people use your music for things you didn’t think of.

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

George Carlin’s album, ‚Class Clown,‘ came out when I was in high school. I memorized a lot of that album. I’d come home from school, put it on, and listen over and over. I started memorizing it. I don’t even know why. I loved it so much I memorized it.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.

I couldn’t have written things like ‚Low‘ and ‚Heroes,‘ those particular albums, if it hadn’t have been for Berlin and the kind of atmosphere I felt there.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

I had a rat-tail when I was younger. I had this nice Bobby Brown fade, with a rat-tail that was long enough to wrap around my face. I used to chew on the end and bite it.

One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

I can’t stress to you enough how much I can relate to teens being cyberbullied. Something that helps me is looking at old videos of me and my friends from middle school, or videos of my family. I love watching funny videos of my favorite people – it really cheers me up.

Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.

No press, no television. If my mom calls and says, ‚Did you hear about?‘ I don’t want to know nothing about anything that is going on in relation to music. I shut it all off.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

There’s something about pulling out a real tape from a shelf and looking at it and knowing that ‚Everlong‘ is on it, or ‚Best of You‘ is on it, and it’s really special.

Akron, Ohio, is my home. It will always be remembered. Akron, Ohio, is my life.

My fans don’t feel like I hold anything back from them. They know whatever I’m going through now, they’ll hear about it on a record someday. They’ll hear the real story. There’s a little bit of lag time. It’s not as instant as going on a gossip blog. But it’s much more accurate.

There are phases in life which surface at times, and it makes you understand that despite you working hard, everything what you are doing is probably not enough. That’s when you need to look around, and beyond.

No parent is perfect; we all can look back and think of things we could’ve done to help our children be better prepared for adulthood. And sometimes it’s best to admit it to them and encourage them to learn from our mistakes.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

When I did ‚Bird,‘ it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn’t in it and second because most of the films I’d been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.

Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

It is one thing to record an album but it’s a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it.

The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

I never looked at my mantel and envisioned an MVP trophy sitting there. This is pretty crazy.

If music be the food of love, play on.

My nails are my rhythm section when I’m writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

So many girls come up and say to me, ‚I have never listened to country music in my life. I didn’t even know my town had a country-music station. Then I got your record, and now I’m obsessed.‘ That’s the coolest compliment to me.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have any songs that are about how much I love someone. They’re all either about, like, ‚I hate you,‘ or ‚You make me hate me.‘

Lyrics are so important, but they’re really underrated.

My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it’s so drawn from my own life and my own stories.

Americans are far more remarkable than we give ourselves credit for. We’ve been so busy damning ourselves for years. We’ve done it all, and yet we don’t take credit for it.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

Everybody has done something that we wish we didn’t say or do and wish we could take it back.

I always felt like there was a certain standard of music that I had to do from the beginning, even when I didn’t have the recognition that I have now.

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

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

Somewhere deep down there’s a decent man in me, he just can’t be found.

I would like to go back to Wales. I’m obsessed with my childhood and at least three times a week dream I am back there.

I like being able to be on the inside of music, rather than on the outside listening to it.

People like music when they’re in love, but they don’t need it as much. You need music when you’re missing someone or you’re pining for someone or you’re forgetting someone or you’re trying to process what just happened.

Rock ‚n‘ roll is ridiculous. It’s absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we’re wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Music is my shining light, my favorite thing in the world. T get me to stop doing it for one second would be difficult!

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

Somebody’s boring me. I think it’s me.

A sense of the universe, a sense of the all, the nostalgia which seizes us when confronted by nature, beauty, music – these seem to be an expectation and awareness of a Great Presence.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that’s what the music is about.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.