I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.

I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I’ll probably… drop writing children’s books and become a political cartoonist again.

Time is money.

Time abides long enough for those who make use of it.

I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.

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

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.

When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.

I have no definite talent or trade, and how I stay alive is largely a matter of magic.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family. I love what I do, but it’s not where it begins and ends.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

If you hear a voice within you say ‚you cannot paint,‘ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

I enjoy working with complicated equipment. A lot of my things started just with a rhythm box, but I feed it through so many things that what comes out sounds very complex and rich.

I get a more passionate delivery when I just go in the booth and let the music talk.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

I don’t do meetings.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

I think any activity you have your kids in, you’re all trying to live vicariously through them. And you’re jealous of the kid that’s naturally more talented or has the facility, the body, the genes, or the God-given talent. People get jealous of that.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.

When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

Music is not math. It’s science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That’s what Norman Mailer did. That’s what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that’s what I do – that’s what I mean to do.

Sometimes I get the start of a story from a memory, an anecdote, but that gets lost and is usually unrecognizable in the final story.

When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I’m only really alive when I’m writing.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

I believe in being an innovator.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

Begin noticing and being careful about keeping your imagination free of thoughts that you do not wish to materialize. Instead, initiate a practice of filling your creative thoughts to overflow with ideas and wishes that you fully intend to manifest. Honor your imaginings regardless of others seeing them as crazy or impossible.

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life.

A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.

What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

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.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

As long as your intentions are solid and about growth and progression and being productive and not being idle, then you’re doing good in my book.

I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

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

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

Engineering didn’t take to me. And what saved me and kept me in college was I ran into ROTC cadets who were in a fraternity called The Pershing Rifles. And I found my place. I found discipline. I found structure. I found people that were like me and I liked.

I try to do the fancy things out there by going with both hands, making crossover moves, and having a certain creativity and flair to my game.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

It’s like a muscle – if you stop going to the gym or stop running, you get weak. The military teaches you these great values, but we don’t keep up the discipline on our own, and we lose it. So wherever you go, keep that discipline up.

It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.

You cannot be creative with people around you.

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Genius, when young, is divine.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.