If you are going to write, say, fantasy – stop reading fantasy. You’ve already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you’re going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

Young people can create beautiful things.

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

All good art is an indiscretion.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

And I wound up in New Orleans for all those years and it was a great place, really a catalyst creatively.

Whether I’m at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading.

I read the Bible to myself; I’ll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is.

Siren voices tell me, ‚You don’t have to keep going on.‘ And then you think, ‚I’m a writer. What do I do? Sit there watching my wife clean up?‘ I don’t know. I like being a writer.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it’s light, and sometimes it gets very dark.

One element of Madonna’s career that really takes center stage is how many times she’s reinvented herself. It’s easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It’s inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, ‚What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?‘ And, ‚How does creativity apply across the board?‘

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.

I think sometimes – not always – I write songs that are accessible.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

We don’t make music – it makes us.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Nothing induces me to read a novel except when I have to make money by writing about it. I detest them.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‚Runaway‘ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‚That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.‘

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

Strong emotions such as passion and bliss are indications that you’re connected to Spirit, or ‚inspired,‘ if you will. When you’re inspired, you activate dormant forces, and the abundance you seek in any form comes streaming into your life.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

No pressure, no diamonds.

I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them.

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

Whatever is on the page is what I’m married to. I’m very prepared. I’m a thespian. I don’t like to improv. I don’t like to go off course ‚cause I think that’s where stuff happens. When you stick to the material ‚cause it’s written so well, that’s where the magic happens.

I create stars.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.

When Hillary was First Lady, we went to the Beijing Women’s Conference. She courageously stood up and spoke out on behalf of human rights and women’s rights, inspiring millions to fight for a better future.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

Read a record number of books in a given month. If you’re focused on intellectual growth, train yourself to study harder and longer than ever before.

My dad used to have an expression – ‚It is the lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they are about to do, and thinks it still matters.‘

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

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

As for hobbies, I don’t really read or watch TV.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

There’s not some idea I’m going to create a work that’s going to change everybody’s consciousness.

Read with care, George Orwell’s diaries, from the years 1931 to 1949, can greatly enrich our understanding of how Orwell transmuted the raw material of everyday experience into some of his best-known novels and polemics.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.