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.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

I’ve made over 25 studio albums, and I think probably I’ve made two real stinkers in my time, and some not-bad albums, and some really good albums. I’m proud of what I’ve done. In fact it’s been a good ride.

As much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I’d eventually run out of steam on that, and that would’ve been the end of it.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

I’ve dreamed about doing music since I was three or four years old.

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

Honestly, I never really put the mic down.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

We’re all dreamers.

When we’re falling in love or out of it, that’s when we most need a song that says how we feel. Yeah, I write a lot of songs about boys. And I’m very happy to do that.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

The boys know they’re from Southeast Asia, and they have their food and their music and their friends, and they have a pride particular to them.

I love story songs because I’ve always loved books.

Genius, when young, is divine.

Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.

I’ve never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.

God has equipped you to handle difficult things. In fact, He has already planted the seeds of discipline and self-control inside you. You just have to water those seeds with His Word to make them grow!

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

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

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

You cannot be creative with people around you.

When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

I like the idea of a kind of eternal music, but I didn’t want it to be eternally repetitive, either. I wanted it to be eternally changing. So I developed two ideas in that way. ‚Discreet Music‘ was like that, and ‚Music for Airports.‘ What you hear on the recordings is a little part of one of those processes working itself out.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

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

Any artist, the work you do, if it’s a painting or if it’s a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else’s life. That’s what’s fun about sharing art.

From wonder into wonder existence opens.

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

People want to feel hopeful.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

Music is in my DNA!

If you want to find the source of much of the music of modern day Russia, you will find it in the incredible compositions of that crazed lunatic Berlioz.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.

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

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there’s no fitting into it now.

I wanted to drop three albums in a year because no one had done it. It was bold, unheard of.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

I don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

I’m putting out this free music, constantly putting it out.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

I try to really capitalize off of what other rappers really can’t do. There are opportunities that rappers I love simply can’t get, because… you know… I don’t have the tattoos; I have a different image.