Muhammad Ali is a legend, a hero of mine.

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

I never woke up and thought, ‚I really want to live a bold life.‘

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

I’m just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I’m inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

And poets, in my view, and I think the view of most people, do speak God’s language – it’s better, it’s finer, it’s language on a higher plane than ordinary people speak in their daily lives.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

I love the name of honor, more than I fear death.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration.

Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable.

I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

I need drama in my life to keep making music.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer.

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

How I love David Bowie.

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

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.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

My kind of composing is more like the work of a gardener. The gardener takes his seeds and scatters them, knowing what he is planting but not quite what will grow where and when – and he won’t necessarily be able to reproduce it again afterwards either.

I can make something magical and wonderful out of nothing.

Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.

Energy begets energy.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

Stories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see where they are going to lead.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

Young people can create beautiful things.

My life is my message.

If you’re a person struggling to eat and stay healthy, you might have heard about Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali, but you’ll never have heard of Bill Gates.

I no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated, I would be a damn fool.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

If it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn’t bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.

We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.