I’m not a natural performer or exhibitionist. When I was younger, I hated the focus, and it made me feel strange.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

It’s always a struggle growing up in Akron.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

My whole life is a theater piece.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

When I was growing up, I wasn’t an extrovert. If anything, I was an introverted kid and a very average pupil at school. I was very quiet.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

I just have always felt that people don’t change, circumstances change.

It definitely has learning a lesson about the way you’re living your life. I wouldn’t compare our movie to that, but it has a structure where it’s about a man who doesn’t appreciate all that he has and finds out at the end that life has been great and he has to enjoy that.

Someone told me something that stuck with me: ‚You have to envision your life, and then go backwards.‘ I’ve been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I’m just backtracking and trying to get back up there.

Sometimes when you’ve had a long series of disappointing things happen, you can get into the very bad habit of just expecting more of what you’ve already had.

Sometimes, you might meet somebody that you love that’s turning into a ‚they.‘ My key is invite them to Miami and take them to the ocean and let them jump off the boat in the ocean, on the sand bar, and cleanse off and pray and then go take a shower, and hopefully the ‚they‘ is out of you.

My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

I have a strong feeling that I shall be glad when I am dead and done for – scrapped at last to make room for somebody better, cleverer, more perfect than myself.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

You don’t have to be like everybody else or do things like everybody else. God created you to be a unique individual, and He wants you to be free to be who He made you to be.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.

Within all of us is a divine capacity to manifest and attract all that we need and desire.

To know oneself, one should assert oneself.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Relationships are the hallmark of the mature person.

It’s more interesting for me to figure out how to be superior in areas where I’m naive, where I’m a novice.

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the ‚leaders‘ must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

I think I have always had a little humor.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

I didn’t want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn’t like it. I always wanted to do other things.

When you stop caring what people think, you lose your capacity for connection. When you’re defined by it, you lose our capacity for vulnerability.

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

I kinda live where I find myself.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.