I went through a lot of battles in high school.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

When I was old enough to change my name, I changed it to Mr. T so that the first word out of someone’s mouth was ‚Mister,‘ a sign of respect.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

Any other woman who has to go to work and pick up the kids and make dinner – that’s way harder than what I have to do.

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.

One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

People tend to think that because I’m a performer and I don’t go to a regular high school that I haven’t personally been affected by bullies. But it’s actually quite the contrary.

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Every human being is under construction from conception to death.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.

Conscious of not being able to separate myself from my time, I have decided to become part of it.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

Teach me to feel another’s woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‚I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.‘

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

I’m tender on the inside.

A hundred struggle and drown in the breakers. One discovers the new world. But rather, ten times rather, die in the surf, heralding the way to that new world, than stand idly on the shore.

I love playing ego and insecurity combined.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.

I got a fancy reputation. During high school, every puzzle that was known to man must have come to me. Every damn, crazy conundrum that people had invented, I knew.

Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

Everything is an open book. I don’t speak on other people’s hardship, but if it happened in my life or something that has been an experience on my particular journey, I’m going to talk about it. That’s what my fan base appreciates the most. I’m universal. You can relate to the things I say or that I go through.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‚I’m with you kid. Let’s go.‘

My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne – to beat her down, hide her.

I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

It’s hard for anybody who’s been with me not to feel starved for affection when I’m making love to my ideas. Maybe it’s not meant for me to settle down and be married.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.

My life is mine to remember.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

We’re not going to go 82-0 and blow everybody out. We are going to be challenged.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.

I’m all about evolution. I’m the first person to judge myself.

I was becoming post-ideological.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.