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

Well I think a lot of times we’re putting things off and I’m going to do it later. I’m going to break this bad habit or I’m going to pursue this dream or I’m going to treat my spouse better.

There is no substitute for victory.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better 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.

There is a fundamental question we all have to face. How are we to live our lives; by what principles and moral values will we be guided and inspired?

Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.

If you play an instrument, it makes you a better singer. The more you play, the better you sing, the more you sing, the better you play.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‚always do what you are afraid to do.‘

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

My dear sisters, whatever your calling, whatever your circumstances, we need your impressions, your insights, and your inspiration. We need you to speak up and speak out in ward and stake councils.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

In high school I wanted to be a rock star and was in a lot of bands.

It’s nice, I think, when people use your music for things you didn’t think of.

I teach children to be winners.

I am not designed to come second or third. I am designed to win.

It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.

I do believe in self-help.

All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I’m too busy looking for the next cow.

It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can’t do anything with that except do it.

I want to represent… to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

There’s no formula.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

I think we’re about ready for a new feeling to enter music. I think that will come from the Arabic world.

To not follow your passion in life is a recipe for failure and unhappiness.

Whatever I’m feeling, whatever I’m going through, whatever mood I’m in… If I’m feeling like dancing or clubbing, then it will be reflected in the music. If I’m feeling dark and vulnerable, then it will reflect in the music, too.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

I’ve always felt music is the only way to give an instantaneous moment the feel of slow motion. To romanticise it and glorify it and give it a soundtrack and a rhythm.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

I don’t think of Kurt as ‚Kurt Cobain from Nirvana‘. I think of him as ‚Kurt‘. It’s something that comes back all the time. Almost every day.

I liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

I can operate in half-a-song format.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

I don’t go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, ‚Let’s see if I can get this done today.‘

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

I love the name of honor, more than I fear death.

I explain the law of compensation like this: ‚Returns are minimal in spite of massive effort at the start, yet returns can be massive with minimal effort over time.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience, it just became one.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.