If tomorrow I want to release a rock album or I want to release a bachata album, nobody can tell me anything – why can’t I?

You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.

A poem is a naked person… Some people say that I am a poet.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

All my records and videos were groundbreaking.

I seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.

Substitute ‚damn‘ every time you’re inclined to write ‚very‘; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

There’s always gonna be rock n‘ roll bands, there’s always gonna be kids that love rock n‘ roll records, and there will always be rock n‘ roll.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

I’m never gonna step away from stand-up. I can’t. That’s what got me where I am, and that’s also my muse. That’s how I stay level-headed. That’s what keeps me going.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

Clothing & fashion are kind of my security blanket, almost.

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.

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ‚Huh. It works. It makes sense.‘

I tend not to like an awful lot of what is going out under my name now because it is just all product. Who needs it?

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

I sing and play the guitar, and I’m a walking, talking bacterial infection.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

Yes, the Bible should be taught in our schools because it is necessary to understand the Bible if we are to truly understand our own culture and how it came to be. The Bible has influenced every part of western culture from our art, music, and history, to our sense of fairness, charity, and business.

I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.

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.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

I think you get most of the most interesting work done in fields where people don’t think they’re doing art but are merely practicing a craft and working as good craftsmen. Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.

Sitting on a bedroom floor crying is something that makes you feel really alone. If someone’s singing about that feeling, you feel bonded to that person. That’s the only way I can find an explanation for why 55,000 people would want to come see me sing.

Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

You don’t have to be scared of me, because I am loyal. Why are people so scared of creative ideas and so scared of truth? All I want to do is do good.

I don’t think I’d ever apologise for music I make, no.

I decided to sell my drawings. However, I didn’t want people to buy my drawings because the professor of physics isn’t supposed to be able to draw – isn’t that wonderful – so I made up a false name.

If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language.

I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them – they are individual and stylish.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

I really like Lady GaGa and everything she is for her fans.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can’t knock it.

I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that’s what makes them extraordinary.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

I’m a spokesman for myself. It just so happens that there’s a bunch of people that are concerned with what I have to say. I find that frightening at times because I’m just as confused as most people. I don’t have the answers for anything.

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

I do seem to like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

You know, there are artists who are 35 and up that still make rap and that still works for them. I don’t know if I want to be that guy.

When I write a book, I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader. It’s not my business whether people like or dislike it.

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.

When you’re singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It’s happening.

From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

I know some people might think it odd – unworthy even – for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people’s poet so I write for the people.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg – I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

I’m not a sheep.