I’ve always tended to write songs prolifically.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

I respect Drake not only as a creative person but as a business mind as well. I think Drake’s important.

Music is something no one can control.

I don’t have anything to say about other people’s art and their work.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.

It was always a plan that we were going to have a retail side with what were doing musically, like an Apple store or Nike Town. I wanted something where you can come get everything – ‚Marathon‘ or ‚All Money‘ or ‚Crenshaw‘ – and make it like an experience. Especially with what Crenshaw and Slauson meant to my story.

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

I try to sprinkle a little gems and jewels in the music that people could use in their own life.

My favorite record label of all time is Motown. That era of music was my favorite.

John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.

All the songs I write are about human dynamics, whether it’s with girlfriends, boyfriends, or family.

When I listen to ‚Nevermind,‘ I hate the production, but there’s something about it that almost makes me cry at times.

The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention.

I’ve noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it’s various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny. And wonderful.

I push myself in a lot of aspects when I write a song. I write a piece and where most people would stop and say, ‚Oh, that’s the hook right there,‘ I’ll move that to the first four bars of the verse and do a new hook.

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

I don’t think I’d ever apologise for music I make, no.

One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can’t swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it’s what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and watch people dance.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

I’m a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker’s ‚You Are So Beautiful‘ and Eric Clapton’s ‚Wonderful Tonight‘ – songs that go straight to the point.

If you want to find the source of much of the music of modern day Russia, you will find it in the incredible compositions of that crazed lunatic Berlioz.

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you’d be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

I kinda like the idea of having an album that’s all me.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream – I was surprised to find it happening.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don’t know why-the lyrics had no meaning.

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

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

A good song never gets old.

It doesn’t bother me when people try to deconstruct my songs – because at least they’re looking at the lyrics, and paying attention to the way the story is told.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

I love the Sex Pistols. I’m a big Beach Boys fan and a huge Zeppelin and Queen fan.

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

My whole life and my whole career, even through my music, I tell people: let’s unify; let’s show more love.

Music helps me tell my story. That’s where I can really be heard. But there’s so much focus on the things that aren’t music.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

I’ve started doing book reviews for Barnes & Noble! They saw that I did a lot of book reviews on the site, and they figured that it might not be a bad thing if they got me to do some for them as well. I gave them five categories I’d be interested in reviewing, from art to fiction to music.

You know, there are artists who are 35 and up that still make rap and that still works for them. I don’t know if I want to be that guy.

We need to try to unite audiences, unite countries, join musical tastes, unite people.

My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. It’s just a matter of joining the dots.

There’s always gonna be rock n‘ roll bands, there’s always gonna be kids that love rock n‘ roll records, and there will always be rock n‘ roll.

I’ve dreamed about doing music since I was three or four years old.

It’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.

I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.

I think sometimes – not always – I write songs that are accessible.

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.

Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.

I’ve always loved Def Leppard, ever since I was little.

When I write, when I’m going hot, I don’t want to write more than four hours in a row. After that, you’re pushing it.