In art, at a certain level, there is no ‚better than.‘ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognised.

One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

By the mid-’60s, recorded music was much more like painting than it was like traditional music. When you went into the studio, you could put a sound down, then you could squeeze it around, spread it all around the canvas.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

I wanted to get a job being creative, and I did.

Fashion is that thing that saved me from being sad.

I kept writing not because I felt I was so good, but because I felt they were so bad, including Shakespeare, all those. The stilted formalism, like chewing cardboard.

For me, genres are a way for people to easily categorize music. But it doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to limit you.

The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I’m just like, ‚Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do‘.

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.

Few people have the imagination for reality.

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 do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

I do have motivation. A lot of motivation.

The successful men I admired all built their bodies.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‚That can be me.‘ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

To create something you must be something.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

I could hardly sit through ‚Frozen.‘ There was an attempt to craft a moral message and to build the story around that, instead of building the story and letting the moral message emerge. It was the subjugation of art to propaganda, in my estimation.

I decided to sell my drawings. However, I didn’t want people to buy my drawings because the professor of physics isn’t supposed to be able to draw – isn’t that wonderful – so I made up a false name.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

I think that the digital media are interesting enough in their own right to be worth originating something in.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

I’m inspired by Walt Disney. I’m inspired by Howard Hughes. I’m inspired by Henry Ford. I’m inspired by Steve Jobs. I mean, I’m inspired by James Perse.

My imagination is a twisted place.

Once you get into space, you can really unleash a lot of creativity, but the launch itself? I have been through all of the creative ways, and believe me, chemical rockets are the best.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

I write all of my own speeches.

So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry – writing at writing.

Bill Gates has always been a mentor and inspiration for me even before I knew him. Just growing up, I admired how Microsoft was mission-focused.

My kind of composing is more like the work of a gardener. The gardener takes his seeds and scatters them, knowing what he is planting but not quite what will grow where and when – and he won’t necessarily be able to reproduce it again afterwards either.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

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.

Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

I have a message to give to the world, and I shall not be thwarted.

Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliche for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed – it is a process of elimination.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

Green Eggs and Ham was the story of my life. I wouldn’t eat a thing when I was a kid, but Dr. Seuss inspired me to try cauliflower!

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

If my films don’t show a profit, I know I’m doing something right.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

Aim for the highest.

Young people can create beautiful things.

Nothing can be by itself alone, no one can be by himself or herself alone, everyone has to inter-be with every one else. That is why, when you look outside, around you, you can see yourself.

Life begins on the other side of despair.