I look at where I’m at today and realize that most of my success is owed to the mentors that was in my life.

I got a signed document from Bullock’s saying that they had such-and-such drawings on consignment. Of course, nobody bought any of them, but otherwise, I was a big success: I had my drawings on sale at Bullock’s!

I can barely walk, but it’s a privilege to be able to move at all.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they’re not trying to keep up with you.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

Get mad, then get over it.

There is so much that people take for granted.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.

Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man’s resources?

Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste.

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

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.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

If a person is successful, we imagine they are probably also ethical, conscientious and deserving of their good fortune. This obscures the fact that many people who get ahead have done so by doing less than moral actions, which they cleverly disguise from view.

My life is mine to remember.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

I would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

Until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire, you will be neither successful nor happy.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

I never admire another’s fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.

We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.

To me, my house is always recreating what I lost in youth.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

I love to sit and eat quietly and enjoy each bite, aware of the presence of my community, aware of all the hard and loving work that has gone into my food.

I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana’s loss, and gratitude for her all-too-short life. It is a chance to show to the whole world the British nation united in grief and respect.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

I was fortunate and I was lucky that I had a couple of people in my life who cared about me. I had good, loving parents.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

One of the things I did when I discovered this huge importance of being vulnerable is very happily moved away from the shame research, because that’s such a downer, and people hate that topic. It’s not that vulnerability is the upside, but it’s better than shame, I guess.

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me – spiritually and financially.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

Success has always been a great liar.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.

Single life is so overrated.

There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.