Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.

At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.

Art is the proper task of life.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

I’m fascinated by musicians who don’t completely understand their territory; that’s when you do your best work.

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Good is positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

Children make your life important.

You don’t have to be scared of me, because I am loyal. Why are people so scared of creative ideas and so scared of truth? All I want to do is do good.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

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.

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue.

I am an anarchist in politics and an impressionist in art as well as a symbolist in literature. Not that I understand what these terms mean, but I take them to be all merely synonyms of pessimist.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.

In the 1960s when the recording studio suddenly really took off as a tool, it was the kids from art school who knew how to use it, not the kids from music school. Music students were all stuck in the notion of music as performance, ephemeral. Whereas for art students, music as painting? They knew how to do that.

I have the ’77 Million Paintings‘ running in my studio a lot of the time. Occasionally I’ll look up from what I’m doing and I think, ‚God, I’ve never seen anything like that before!‘ And that’s a real thrill.

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

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

I use my celebrity status to inspire someone, to give them hope.

My career as Nipsey Hussle is based on my life as Ermias Asghedom.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

I let people fill in the blanks on their own. If they want to think about their ex, that’s fine. If they want to think about maybe who one of my exes is, then that’s fine. And it might not be right, because I’m the only one who knows what these songs are really about. It’s the one shred of privacy I have in the matter.

I’m an inventor.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.

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

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

Time stays, we go.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I’m a writer… I write.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.

Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Absence and death are the same – only that in death there is no suffering.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle.

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.