My life is my message.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

I hope that what you take away from my album is not just the music – which I did want to be fun, and I did want it to be about individuality, but please also take away from it that there’s no dream that’s too big.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger’s as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

I believe life is an intelligent thing: that things aren’t random.

Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist, and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think, ‚What a waste of energy.‘ If people want to believe in this god or that god, that’s fine by me; believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.

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.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

I like to make people feel happy and superior in their reaction towards my appearance.

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?

Catering to bad feelings feeds and empowers them.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

You lose your individuality a huge amount when you have no money, and I certainly had that experience.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

I fear that too many have sadly surrendered their agency to the adversary and are saying by their conduct, ‚I care more about satisfying my own desires than I do about bearing the Savior’s power to bless others.‘

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it’s light, and sometimes it gets very dark.

Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

I think that we have opportunities all around us – sometimes we just don’t recognize them.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

Responsibility, I believe, accrues through privilege.

I never expected to be anybody important.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

My fans saw me get engaged, saw me make that woman my wife, me having kids, me divorcing, me talking about divorce before the divorce, me talking about my kids‘ reaction to that divorce.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Egos are never nice. I have been a victim of it a lot of times in my career. Whenever I have used it, I have failed.

Where love is, there God is also.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

I’ve done many ads because that’s my new career. It’s an inspiring extension for my mind.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

I think I’ve got wiser.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

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.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

My life is the road, man. I need to keep moving.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

I went through a period when I felt my film characters were having more fun than I was. It might partly explain why I ended up tattooed or doing certain extreme things in my life.