If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.

I just have a relationship with my imagination. It’s like my friend, almost.

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

I’ve had everything pierced at some point.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

I just wanted to be a songwriter. I did really not like the sound of my own voice.

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.

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.

The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.

When I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.

It doesn’t take much to make me angry.

Hatred is settled anger.

I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.

It’s very hard to find your own words – and you don’t actually exist until you have your own words.

I’ve always written. There’s a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother’s papers were destroyed. I’d written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.

I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

Without exercise, I don’t feel like my head works right.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

I’m not a complete psychopath. Am I partially? Sure. I’ll accept that. But I’m not a complete psychopath.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Freedom is not enough.

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

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

People have so much going on in their heads. I’m like, If you could write a song, you’d feel so much better!

I do have a few little tattoos, but they were mostly done to cover scars because I’m so fair.

The only thing I know is I ain’t changing my brand. I know what I believe. I’m confident in what I know. And I’m gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don’t like it, I understand.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

If you’re a surfer, you just want to surf. You don’t know if anyone’s going to see you, and you don’t really care if they see you. You just live for that feeling.

The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you’re wrinkled.

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

Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

It’s like the Wild West, the Internet. There are no rules.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss, even though the subject can still be very sad. Because there’s the triumph of coming through and understanding that you have, and that you did it the way only you could do it. You didn’t do it the way somebody told you to do it.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

It is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve – not the country, for the country will preserve itself, but the institutions of the country – those institutions which have made us free, intelligent and happy – the most free, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.