I’m just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I’m inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be comfortable with everything that comes with being in a band as big as Nirvana. The thing that I don’t understand is not appreciating that simple gift of being able to play music.

I’m interested in Jackson Pollock’s kind of art, where art is beautiful, but it’s nothing, and yet it’s incredible.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. They’re my biggest heroes. I love everything about Leonard Cohen: his lyrics and his voice. He seems like a really clever man, and Bob Dylan does as well. He’s just really cool.

Literally wrote ‚Starboy‘ in 30 minutes.

I like sitting and writing with my buddies.

What keeps me motivated is love and passion.

As a kid, I used to see how Sachin Tendulkar used to win matches under pressure for India in Sharjah or other places. So I was always keen to repeat the same in similar situations. I don’t take pressure on myself when I am in the middle. I love pressure, and I always believe that pressure makes you more focused.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

So there’s nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who’s cool hates – and then making it cool.

There’s no such thing as perfect writing, just like there’s no such thing as perfect despair.

What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man’s soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

I’m trying to throw a big broad net to try to get people interested in God and believe that He’s for them and has a purpose.

I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.

My grandfather once ventured upon publishing a volume of hymns. I never heard anyone speak in their favour or argue that they ought to have been sung in the congregation. In that volume, he promised a second if the first should prove acceptable. We forgive him the first collection because he did not inflict another.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

The sun is gone, but I have a light.

When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

The Bible says to ‚fear not,‘ but this doesn’t mean you should never feel scared. It means when you do feel fear, keep going forward and do what you are supposed to do. Or as I like to say, do it afraid.

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

I could have been a cult writer if I’d kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so I had to prove that I could write a realistic book.

I hate talking about music, to tell you the truth.

You gotta make sure the listener is listening to you, so if you put it into a song, often times, if the song is striking enough, then you can really deliver the story most effectively while keeping the ear of the listener the whole time.

U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don’t really know what we’re doing and when we do, it doesn’t seem to help.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.

When I listen to a song, I don’t say, ‚Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.‘ I’m thinking, ‚That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.‘

I woke up one day and thought: ‚I want to write a book about the history of my body.‘ I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

Music is something no one can control.

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

I think that’s why I put my energy into making music. That’s how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

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

One of the things you’re doing when you make art, apart from entertaining yourself and other people, is trying to see what ways of working feel good, what feels right.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

Naturally, my stories are about women – I’m a woman. I don’t know what the term is for men who write mostly about men. I’m not always sure what is meant by ‚feminist.‘ In the beginning, I used to say, ‚Well, of course I’m a feminist.‘ But if it means that I follow a kind of feminist theory, or know anything about it, then I’m not.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

Attitude and enthusiasm play a big part in my life. I get excited about the things that inspire me. I also believe in laughing and having a good time.

Art is to be free. Design is to fix.

If I inspire you, pay for it, period.

The bravest person I’ve ever met was a young boy going through massive amounts of treatment for a very rare, complex and unpleasant disease. I last saw him at a Discworld convention, where he chose to take part in a game as an assassin. He died not long afterwards, and I wish I had his fortitude and sense of style.

Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.