It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

I want my fans to love themselves. It’s almost like I want to hypnotize them so when they hear my music they love themselves instantly.

Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians. They also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world. But if it hadn’t been computer science, these people would have been doing amazing things in other fields.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

Believe it or not, I was just given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee.

I guess that’s one of the things about growing up in the fifties – it never occurred to me that you wouldn’t be at least as successful as your parents.

I hope when I’m dead I’ll be considered an icon, though.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches – he has made music sick.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

Now, we are selling over 5 million songs a day now. Isn’t that unbelievable? That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

To win a national championship, you’ve got to be a little lucky.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

I have kind of a funny relationship with movies. I don’t have to see the whole movie to get an impression of it or to let it have an influence on me.

Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?

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.

I know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one’s landlady.

You listen to the radio and all the songs sound the same, from 8 in the morning to 12.

I’d love it if everyone knew one Foo Fighters song.

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

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I’ve been working nonstop since I was 15. I don’t even know how to chill out.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

Honestly, I never really put the mic down.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

God’s desire is that we excel.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?

Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

‚Victory Lap,‘ even the title. It’s the accumulation of trial and error; that’s what I represent; trial and error.

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

I’ve been asking myself: ‚Why put together these things – CDs, albums?‘ The answer I came up with is, well, sometimes it’s artistically viable. It’s not just a random collection of songs. Sometimes the songs have a common thread, even if it’s not obvious or even conscious on the artists‘ part.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Every album, I make big records. I’m going to always make an anthem. That’s what I do.

Overnight stardom can be harmful to your mental health. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

Man gives you the award but God gives you the reward.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women’s issues to the center of our foreign policy.

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.

You don’t know when you’re being watched. That’s one of the weird things about celebrity. It’s my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when ‚Jolene‘ was a big hit.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

Big results require big ambitions.

It’s about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story, and all kinds of sonic goodness – sonic goodies.

There was a time Michael Jackson couldn’t get his video on MTV because he was considered to be ‚urban.‘ The Michael Jackson. So I literally have to be the Michael Jackson of apparel in order to break down the doors for everyone who will come after I’m gone, after I’m dead.