Japan’s very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don’t think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that’s already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor.

Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

The age in which we live, this non-stop distraction, is making it more impossible for the young generation to ever have the curiosity or discipline… because you need to be alone to find out anything.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.

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 love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.

The Internet, man, is a beautiful thing.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

Compton got such a legacy in hip-hop.

Once the automobile appeared you could have predicted that it would destroy as many people as it did.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

There is spontaneity to my work.

Wandering around the web is like living in a world in which every doorway is actually one of those science fiction devices which deposit you in a completely different part of the world when you walk through them. In fact, it isn’t like it, it is it.

India does not need to become anything else. India must become only India. This is a country that once upon a time was called the golden bird.

I like the app where you can make your own memes. I make memes all the time and send them to my friends.

There are people who don’t like capitalism, and people who don’t like PCs. But there’s no-one who likes the PC who doesn’t like Microsoft.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones.

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.

Silicon Valley has some of the smartest engineers and technology business people in the world.

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.

The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

I just have a relationship with my imagination. It’s like my friend, almost.

I love inventing names, but I also collect unusual names, so that I can look through my notebook and choose one that suits a new character.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

SpaceX is only 12 years old now. Between now and 2040, the company’s lifespan will have tripled. If we have linear improvement in technology, as opposed to logarithmic, then we should have a significant base on Mars, perhaps with thousands or tens of thousands of people.

The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.

U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don’t really know what we’re doing and when we do, it doesn’t seem to help.

I feel very lucky to make a living from my imagination; I’m very grateful for that. I like that what I do is create. I’m feeling very lucky to have had the career I had. It’s gone much longer and bigger than I ever thought it would be.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

Hong Kong is a wonderful, mixed-up town where you’ve got great food and adventure. First and foremost, it’s a great place to experience China in a relatively accessible way.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

If I weren’t performing, I’d be a beauty editor or a therapist. I love creativity, but I also love to help others. My mother was a hairstylist, and they listen to everyone’s problems – like a beauty therapist!

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.

One of my big regrets is that Facebook hasn’t had a major chance to shape the mobile operating system ecosystem.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

The less you know, the more you believe.

I’m a Silicon Valley guy. I just think people from Silicon Valley can do anything.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

Writing is such a strange, utterly mysterious process. First, there was nothing; then, suddenly, there was something. I don’t know where thoughts are born. Where the hell does it come from? I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.

After launching the first version of Facebook for a few thousand users, we would discuss how this should be built for the world. It wasn’t even a thought that maybe it could be us. We always thought it would be someone else doing it.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.

It’s OK for China to invent cancer drugs that cure patients in the United States. We want them to catch up. But as the leader, we want to keep setting a very, very high standard. We don’t want them to catch up because we’re slowing down or, even worse, going into reverse.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

I’m not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it’s almost like we’re living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it’s like a big reality show.

I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.