It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.

I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

A lot of people don’t realise I came out of the Smoky Mountains with a load of songs.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

I’ve never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there’s nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there. It’s coming up out of my unconscious, up from places that I don’t even know where they are.

The difficulty with this conversation is that it’s very different from most of the ones I’ve had of late. Which, as I explained, have mostly been with trees.

A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

You are never too young to learn, never too old to change.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.

Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.

The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them – neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

I’ve done many ads because that’s my new career. It’s an inspiring extension for my mind.

When California was wild, it was the floweriest part of the continent.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn’t be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever. I’m not really book-smart.

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

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.

Gardening is not a rational act.

I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

Many readers fail to realize this, but ‚The Color Purple‘ is a theological text. It is about the reclamation of one’s original God: the earth and nature.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

Many times, we miss out on God’s best because we give up too soon. We don’t realize how close we are to victory.

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

Science arose from poetry… when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

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.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

Since I was old enough to understand what a songwriter/producer is, I’ve had a curiosity about how Max Martin creates what he creates. I wanted to see that happen. I wanted to be there. I wanted to learn from him.

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.

The earth’s crust has not yet stopped heaving and plunging under our feet. Mountain ranges are still being thrust up on the horizon. Granites are still growing under the continental masses. Nor has the organic world ceased to produce new buds at the tips of its countless branches.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

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

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

Walking is man’s best medicine.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

I read everything, but generally more fact than fiction – especially autobiographies and biographies. I’ve read ‚Long Walk to Freedom‘ by Nelson Mandela at least twice on holiday. Every time, I’m totally awed by his vision, strength and forgiveness. I feel honoured to have got to know him and his wonderful wife Graca over the years.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.

Never, and I mean never, allow anyone else’s ideas of who you can or can’t become sully your dream or pollute your imagination. This is your territory, and a ‚Keep Out‘ sign is a great thing to erect at all entrances to your imagination.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.

Nature never breaks her own laws.

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.