Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

I wake up every day inspiring myself, because God gave me life.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

All of my songs are autobiographical.

I gather from motivation around me – from a lot of personalities who have done well in their respective fields.

I always use Michael as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and ‚Off the Wall‘ was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing.

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

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?

What inspires me about rap is that it’s written in an almost poetic way. I just think it’s so cool.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

All my momma’s people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.

Everything is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians.

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It’s a story.

You get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.

I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

Editing is now the easiest thing on earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing – ‚Oh, let’s put that sentence there, let’s get rid of this‘ – have become commonplace in films and music too.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.

I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

It’s nice, I think, when people use your music for things you didn’t think of.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

I like George Carlin’s jokes. I like his humor. He’s one of my heroes, and I like what he did with talking about everyday things.

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

My whole life and my whole career, even through my music, I tell people: let’s unify; let’s show more love.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

One day, I’ll be listening to a bunch of Ray Charles, the next day it’s nothing but Red Hot Chili Peppers. The next day it might be Tupac all day.

Sometimes you need faith and victory spoken over your life. Words have created power. When you receive them into your spirit, they can ignite seeds of increase on the inside.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

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.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

Bill Gates has always been a mentor and inspiration for me even before I knew him. Just growing up, I admired how Microsoft was mission-focused.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

All art is but imitation of nature.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

I liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.