If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

It’s always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.

I’m always asked, ‚What’s the secret to success?‘ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.

If you deserve it, go get it.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Cause I’m a musician, I’m not really good at posing and being a model, like, modeling.

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you’re doomed; you’re finished.

Character is destiny.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.

Mastery passes often for egotism.

I feel that my fans have cultivated my talent and they continue to nurture me.

Becoming a writer is not a ‚career decision‘ like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don’t choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you’re not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days.

I think I’ve got wiser.

Learn to think continentally.

I don’t let even a day go by wherein I don’t give at 100 per cent.

I have made the mistaken assumption – and I will attempt to be better at this – of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. And that is my mistake.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

My moms always told me, ‚How long you gonna play the victim?‘ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

I’m not a bad person.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

And we are never too old to study the Bible. Each time the lessons are studied comes some new meaning, some new thought which will make us better.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Observe all men, thyself most.

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

Once someone has spent enough time cultivating bad habits and biding their time, they are much diminished. Much of what they could have been has dissipated.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

Meditation is a vital practice to access conscious contact with your highest self.

I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

I like being a writer.

And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

I like pushing boundaries.

Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

I’m only going to stand before God and give an account for my life, not for somebody else’s life. If I have a bad attitude, then I need to say there’s no point in me blaming you for what’s wrong in my life.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.

I spent most of the early years of my walk with God focused on what was wrong with me. Most of us probably do that, hoping to change ourselves.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

I don’t see how people are comfortable with seeing other people be great. You can be happy for anybody, but what is your excuse to not want to be great? These people are great because they just say, ‚I’ma do that,‘ and they do it. That’s it. There’s no scientifical process.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.