I tried to give the world a bit of creativity, lyrics. And for me, I will always represent music from Puerto Rico, reggaeton, Latin music.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

In all seriousness, people think that it’s the ideas that are important. Well, everyone has ideas, all the time. I tend to write mine down and remember them, but at some point you have to apply the bum to the seat and knock out about sixty five thousand words – that’s how long a novel is.

I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It’s not super-poetic, it’s just from the heart.

I can operate in half-a-song format.

If it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

Music is always a commentary on society.

The art which we may call generally art of the wayside, as opposed to that which is the business of men’s lives, is, in the best sense of the word, Grotesque.

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

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

I think it’s really cool when artists have song titles or album names that are a really conversational sentence.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Anybody that doesn’t like Cardi B a hater!

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.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

I’ll live in Puerto Rico until the day I die.

Art is the proper task of life.

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

I love inventing names, but I also collect unusual names, so that I can look through my notebook and choose one that suits a new character.

I don’t like headphones very much, and I rarely listen to music on headphones.

One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can’t swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it’s what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and watch people dance.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

An author writes a book, and that’s the book at that point. And if the author writes the book again, then somehow something has gone wrong, if you see what I mean.

If one has fear, there can be no initiative in the creative sense of the word. To have initiative in this sense is to do something original – to do it spontaneously, naturally, without being guided, forced, controlled. It is to do something which you love to do.

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.

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

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.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

It’s kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else’s hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them.

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

I’m working on my life story. I’m not decided if it’s going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.

You can’t really imagine music without technology.

I’ve always been a fan of melody and emotional melancholy, whether it was Rites of Spring or Tears for Fears or Neil Young. If I hear a song that has a sweet melody, I’m a sucker for it, whether it’s Linkin Park or Little Richard.

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

I never look at my watch when I’m sketching!

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That’s what inspired the ‚Off to the Races‘ melodies. That’s one of the times when you’re feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive.

I wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family band. Straight Partridge Family.

My songs always sound a lot better in person than they do on the record.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

People may think I’m trying something new by telling stories, but they’re just jokes connected to give the illusion of stories. But really, I just continue using my imagination and creating. That’s what I do.

When you write your first book aged 25 or so, you have 25 years of experience, albeit much of it juvenile experience. The second book comes after an extra year sitting in bookshops. Pretty soon, you begin to run on empty.

I don’t intend to stop making music.

Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.

Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don’t know what that is; I don’t think too much about that.

You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you’d be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.