I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn’t write? But that fortunately hasn’t proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.

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.

I’m an expert typist. I learned in high school. I would close my eyes and just type without worrying about mistakes. I tried to penetrate my heart, and as I let my thoughts drift, things bubbled up to the surface.

I’m a painter in sound.

Who I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

I do things I love doing. Sometimes that is maybe going out to have a drink with friends, going out partying or whatever.

Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way – artistically.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There’s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy’s will are not allowed that luxury.

I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

It’s all make believe, isn’t it?

To not follow your passion in life is a recipe for failure and unhappiness.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

Maybe some people can wake up and play PlayStation all day, but that’s never been me.

When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that’s a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that’s the thrill in fashion.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

I like to be myself, and I don’t pretend. For instance, I don’t dress up for occasions; I am what I am.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

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

Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I’m very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.

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.

From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

I’m sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

All fiction is about people, unless it’s about rabbits pretending to be people. It’s all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that’s what we call ‚the plot‘.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

Although I write screenplays, I don’t think I’m a very good writer.

It takes up enough of my time and interest just working on comedy. I just enjoy it and love doing it.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it’s saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

Certainly I’m not going to sit on the Internet all day and read what Sam from Iowa is saying about me. But I’m a sponge. I’ve always been a sponge.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever. I’m not really book-smart.