I’ve always had a problem with the average macho man – they’ve always been a threat to me.

It’s always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‚Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.‘ See the positive in negative events.

I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.

Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There’s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

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.

There’s two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

I’ve learned over the years that when I go to that place of passion within me, there’s no force in the universe that can interfere with my completing a project.

Why regret anything? Where does it get you to regret anything you’ve ever done in your life? It gets you nowhere. It’s a pathetic emotion that you can wallow in.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

I’ve lived a very colorful life, and I’ve said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I’ve never apologized for them – and I won’t.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

I’ve discovered that when we take time to renew our minds with God’s Word, we learn how to think like God thinks, say what God says, and act like He wants us to act.

What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Don’t just let the devil use your mind as a garbage dump.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

I woke up one day and thought: ‚I want to write a book about the history of my body.‘ I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

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

When I was young, I could not imagine being old. My mother said, and the doctor confirmed, that I had an unusual amount of energy; and it followed me into young adulthood.

I think the worst part about a breakup sometimes, if one could choose a worst part, would possibly be if you get out of a relationship, and you don’t recognize yourself because you changed a lot about you.

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.

The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you’re 16 can mirror the one you have when you’re 26. Life repeats itself.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

My freshman and sophomore years in high school, I spent a lot of time trying to get back on the right track. I was arrested multiple times by the time I was 16, so I had a little harder time trying to adjust like a lot of us do in high school.

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

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

Without being the most confident person in the world, I think I am the right person for Liverpool.

I walk tall; I got a tall attitude.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

I’ve always written. There’s a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother’s papers were destroyed. I’d written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

When I was a child, I was very poor and wanted everything. So when I got money, I began buying things.

She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

Humble people ask for help.

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad.

I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

Observe all men, thyself most.

I disagree with everything I used to say.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It’s crazy. I’ve made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.