I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‚It sounds good!‘ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliche for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.

I think ‚Hail to the Chief‘ has a nice ring to it.

I know the blessing of having a dad who played 16 years in the league. That experience, and seeing him as an example, let me know that it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

This is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It’s all hip-hop. You can’t say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what? You felt his soul on those records.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

When I listen to a song, I don’t say, ‚Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.‘ I’m thinking, ‚That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.‘

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

Music from my fourth year began to be the first of my youthful occupations. Thus early acquainted with the gracious muse who tuned my soul to pure harmonies, I became fond of her, and, as it often seemed to me, she of me.

I don’t like to feel like I’m in a club when I’m in my car and I turn on the radio. Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.

I always use the same guitar; I got this guitar years and years ago for nine pounds. It’s still got the same strings on it.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

No pressure, no diamonds.

I’m wallowing in the whole idea of just being a guy out there with a band, with songs. It’s a real enjoyment.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‚That can be me.‘ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don’t know why-the lyrics had no meaning.

I just love working with Eminem. He’s just one of my favorite rappers, and his lyrics – he’s a true poet, and I enjoy that about him.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

There is spontaneity to my work.

I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

I love the name of honor, more than I fear death.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that’s what the music is about.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

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.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

I really wish I knew what I was doing because I’d be writing hit songs every minute.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

A ‚scream‘ is always just that – a noise and not music.

Since I was old enough to understand what a songwriter/producer is, I’ve had a curiosity about how Max Martin creates what he creates. I wanted to see that happen. I wanted to be there. I wanted to learn from him.

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.

If I had to choose a superhero to be, I would pick Superman. He’s everything that I’m not.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

Everybody has a purpose.

My whole life, I’ve sung and listened to music, and since the beginning, I’ve had iTunes and used Apple Music for streaming.