My goal is to entertain myself and others.

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

You may make some mistakes – but that doesn’t make you a sinner. You’ve got the very nature of God on the inside of you.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

A lot of people don’t realise I came out of the Smoky Mountains with a load of songs.

I don’t write so much now. I’m getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

Nobody can ever say that being negative ever helped them at all – not in any way.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I’d sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn’t miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Die to everything of yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigor and passion.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

You make ‚em, I amuse ‚em.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

By taking responsibility for how you choose to respond to anything or anyone, you’re aligning yourself with the beautiful dance of life.

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Even with all the advantages of retrospect, and a lot of witnesses dead and gone, you can’t make your life look as if you intended it or you were consistent. All you can show is how you dealt with various hands.

No great thing is created suddenly.

I’m tender on the inside.

I do all my own stunts. I’m kidding.

I am happy and I’m single.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

Teach me to feel another’s woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

The first step in a person’s salvation is knowledge of their sin.

My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

Get mad, then get over it.

I don’t think I’d ever apologise for music I make, no.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.

It’s very difficult to regulate yourself, and if you learn to do that, well, it starts to spill over.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

The older I get, the better I understand that every day is a gift.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.