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.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

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

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

Art is the proper task of life.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

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.

What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

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

I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

I used to take my short stories to girls‘ homes and read them to them. Can you imagine the reaction reading a short story to a girl instead of pawing her?

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

But by reading them again and again finally I was able to grasp the essential part. What emotion, enthusiasm, enlightenment and confidence they communicated to me! I wept for joy.

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

Scientists have to have a metaphor. All scientists start with imagination.

I don’t know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

In order to fly, all one must do is simply miss the ground.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever.

I am a dangerous man when turned loose with a typewriter.

To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible?

Writing is such a strange, utterly mysterious process. First, there was nothing; then, suddenly, there was something. I don’t know where thoughts are born. Where the hell does it come from? I don’t know. I really don’t know.

My life is my message.

I’m terrible at reading scripts. I love to read, and I hate reading scripts.

Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring… ‚How to Build a Boat.‘

When I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‚infinitely‘ when you mean ‚very‘; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

If you check your ego at the door when it comes to comedy, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.

Nobody should come to the movies unless he believes in heroes.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

When I see a story, I ask: is this something I’d like to be in? Is this something I’d like to see? And if I’d like to see it, would I like to tell it?

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

I thought it was magic to be able to catch something identically on tape and then be able to play around with it, run it backwards; I thought that was great for years.

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

We must use time creatively.

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.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Today, writers want to impress other writers.

Labor gives birth to ideas.

I design things to help people to hopefully express their personality.