I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

My lyrics are generated by various peculiar processes. Very random and similar to automatic writing.

I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.

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

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse. So for me, it’s a great thing to be able to scream and say whatever I want.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

Losing is not an option in Kolkata. It’s not easy, a lot of players even quit.

I think one of my pursuits over the years is trying to answer the question of, ‚What else can you do with a voice other than stand in front of a microphone and sing?‘

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.

In many ways, I’ve been writing personal stories all my life.

I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right, even when you’re not sure it is.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.

I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.

I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.

Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.

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.

I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It’s a parallel thing in me.

I’m honored that everybody’s inspired off my inspiration.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, ‚One tear, right now,‘ that one tear would pop out.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

I stayed focused, and I never surrendered, and now I’ve been blessed. now I take care of my mother, my father, and my entire whole family.

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

If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

I always have to be writing.

I believe in the battle-whether it’s the battle of a campaign or the battle of this office, which is a continuing battle.

I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

I’ve had this terrible stomach problem for years, and that has made touring difficult. People would see me sitting in the corner by myself looking sick and gloomy. The reason is that I was trying to fight against the stomach pain, trying to hold my food down. People looked me and assumed I was some kind of addict.

I’m not a complete psychopath. Am I partially? Sure. I’ll accept that. But I’m not a complete psychopath.

I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top – I’m afraid that’s not quite right.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.

My mother says I was writing before I was crawling. I wrote in the dirt with a twig.

When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.