I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.

I went to see ‚Phantom of the Opera‘ with my grandma and my mom when I was very little. The stage, the voice, the music… Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been a massive inspiration to me for some time – the storytelling, that deliciously somber undertone in his music.

I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

I used to – my earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. I’ve always heard kind of melodies in my head.

Art is going to make a bigger comeback than ever. That’s the upside to things getting challenging.

When I was a young kid, I did not even dream about playing for my country. It was such a farfetched thing to play for India.

There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unspeakable, all those things come into being a composer, into writing music, into searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

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

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

I don’t have any terrific self-esteem issues but I do sometimes realise I’ve been too lucky and that I’m over-praised. It makes me nervous. I have this sense of being overrated.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

When I was making ‚Star Wars,‘ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, ‚I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.‘

Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I’m very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.

I have short goals – to get better every day, to help my teammates every day – but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It’s all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

I was sure I’d set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth – that I hadn’t set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if ‚The Big Trail‘ had been a success and launched me as a star.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?

Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

It’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.

I’ve had a fan who made a painting of my face with her fingers. I have put it up in my room. It was sweet and very different.

You do projects with the hope they will be big and hope they will go beyond what you imagine.

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

Art is to be free. Design is to fix.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

When I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.

A song is anything that can walk by itself.

I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

I’m interested in Jackson Pollock’s kind of art, where art is beautiful, but it’s nothing, and yet it’s incredible.

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.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

I hate the idea of genres.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‚Don’t try.‘ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?