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.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

Stand-up is hard. Or to keep it at a certain level is hard: I have no writers but me.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

I wanted to write.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

If an idea isn’t exciting, you shouldn’t do it.

Speculative fiction encompasses that which we could actually do. Sci-fi is that which we’re probably not going to see.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

I don’t control my writing – it controls me.

I’m seeing the world partially through the eyes of a kid. Not all the time. There’s no black and white to it. But sometimes I’m seeing it like I’m 4.

Children always turn to the light.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

A solution built by an artist serves the artist more than the solution the capitalist comes up with.

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

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.

Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people.

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

Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.

There’s no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn’t write? But that fortunately hasn’t proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Hope is a waking dream.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

Always do whatever’s next.

But if I have a lot of imagination, I could tell myself whatever I wanted, you know. I handle myself quite well. I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know. There’s no discussion. There is an order. You follow it.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Bhai was my hero and he had immense influence on me.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

We don’t make music – it makes us.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world. But the truth is you really don’t.

The arts don’t exist in isolation.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

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.‘

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

We all sort of do want incentives for creative people to still exist at a certain level. You know, maybe rock stars shouldn’t make as much; who knows? But you want as much creativity to take place in the future as took place in the past.

The only frustrating thing about jail is that I can’t make music.