Imagination decides everything.

I like the idea of working in different genres and transcending genres and hopefully finding success, and ultimately make movies people like.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

Stories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see where they are going to lead.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

If it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

All art is quite useless.

I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.

I think the high-tech industry is used to developing new things very quickly. It’s the Silicon Valley way of doing business: You either move very quickly and you work hard to improve your product technology, or you get destroyed by some other company.

To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That’s what Norman Mailer did. That’s what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that’s what I do – that’s what I mean to do.

‚Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

God wants to use you to make other people happy! And the happier you make others, the happier you will be because you reap what you sow.

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake. I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.

I am excited to partner with Under Armour to bring game-changing sleepwear, with the same bioceramics technology I use, to athletes all around the world.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

Everybody has a purpose.

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

I learned from the guys before me – Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, just to name a few. These are guys that let it all hang out. What they lived is what they took to the stage.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg – I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

I love the song ‚I Hope You Dance‘ by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.

I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.

Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

I don’t set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

We must use time creatively.

I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

I’m happy to be a writer – of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn’t a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

I’ve had a fan who made a painting of my face with her fingers. I have put it up in my room. It was sweet and very different.

The real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk.