I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

I’m not trying to be fashionable. Never was!

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go its pretty damn good.

My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

I’m not lesbian; I’m not bisexual; I’m not straight. I’m just curious.

Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: ‚Well, I’m almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.‘

Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it’s not just my way or the highway.

I’m blessed to have such a tight-knit family that we can talk about anything. Whether we talk frequently or not, since we’re on separate ends of the country, there are a lot of moving parts, and we always stay tight and find that center ground that keeps us together.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

When I came into this industry, I was never afraid to be myself.

I can handle pain.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

The great quest of life has always been to discover truth.

‚Good English‘ is whatever educated people talk; so that what is good in one place or time would not be so in another.

Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.

What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn’t say I lived in a ghetto; I’d say I lived in the ‚hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Style is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying. It is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

A pessimist? That’s a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist.

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.

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

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

In my father’s generation, the product was 80 percent of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20 percent. It now seems that 80 percent of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I’m wearing.

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.

Unless you love someone, nothing else makes any sense.

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

Without being the most confident person in the world, I think I am the right person for Liverpool.

How to drive a guy crazy: send him a telegram and on the top put ‚page 2.‘

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

It’s easier to aim to please and say what others want to hear than to form an opinion and fight for it, even if it means taking a risk or losing your job.

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.