Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

The work is the work. The work is not me.

What you guys want, I’m for.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

We’ve been programmed, from the time that we were very, very little, about what we can’t do – about what is impossible.

I feel impressed to counsel those engaged in personal challenges to do right. In particular, my heart reaches out to those who feel discouraged by the magnitude of their struggle.

Love is a state of being.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

The thing I always say to people is this: ‚If you avoid failure, you also avoid success.‘

Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.

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

I’m screamingly funny, you know, I really am in the books. And that helps because I’m funnier than a lot of people, I think, and that’s appreciated by young people.

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.

My parents pretty much realized that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really.

I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

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

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

You should never give up your inner self.

Imagine your family finally making it from nothing to something, and finally getting things going, and finally buying a beautiful house and taking care of your children – and the next day, it’s completely all gone. Zero. Boom. Flat broke. So that’s when I had to man up.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

Don’t feel sorry for me.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

My son has died of AIDS.

To me, my house is always recreating what I lost in youth.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

I’m not a bad person.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Don’t bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

There is something about building up a comradeship – that I still believe is the greatest of all feats – and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It’s the intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got. It’s really a very pleasant sensation.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.