My work as an artist is completely separate from my work as a philanthropist.

‚Nothin‘ on You‘ by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I’d been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.

Everything I have, my career, my success, my family, I owe to America.

The people you choose to have around you make all the difference. My family and close friends keep me grounded. You have to have a mind of your own and a strong head on your shoulders. Cricket is the most important thing to me, so the rest of it pales in comparison.

I’ve been a mogul and executive since the beginning of my career. People are just born with that skill.

If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.

This has been my life for many years; one role feeds the other.

We don’t make music – it makes us.

I’ve been pleased to work with so many wonderful stars through the years. This has been an amazing journey. I hope it continues.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

I like policy. It’s why I decided to enter government. The other thing I like about government – you have good days, you have bad days, but you never have a boring day, and that’s important to me.

From infancy, I have relied on the fiercely sweet spirits of black men; and this is abundantly clear in my work.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

I do my job like I breathe.

Perhaps it’s good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he’s happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

Oh yes, I love to do shoes. I’m not a fetishist but I love to do shoes.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

You know, from age 17 on, my paycheck was coming from cooking and working in kitchens.

Basketball is my passion, I love it. But my family and friends mean everything to me. That’s what’s important. I need my phone so I can keep in contact with them at all times.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.

There is spontaneity to my work.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

Films and television and even comic books are churning out vast quantities of fictional narratives, and the public continues to swallow them up with great passion. That is because human beings need stories.

People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.

I did 20 years in the Navy. I joined the Navy right out of high school and went through Navy boot camp, went to SEAL training, got done with that, and then showed up at a SEAL team, where I did 20 years. That was pretty much my whole adult life.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.

The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too – eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway – I was a sandwich artist – and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

I loved what I did. I could’ve been secretary of state for ever.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

I’ve found that men I’ve dated who are in the same business can be really competitive. I’ve found a great group of girlfriends in the same business who aren’t competitive, but a few times guys have started comparing careers and it has been… challenging.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

O, you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you, and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Fans are my favorite thing in the world. I’ve never been the type of artist who has that line drawn between their friends and their fans. The line’s always been really blurred for me. I’ll hang out with them after the show. I’ll hang out with them before the show. If I see them in the mall, I’ll stand there and talk to them for 10 minutes.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

I don’t profess to have music as my big wheel and there are a number of other things as important to me apart from music. Theatre and mime, for instance.

I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?

I’ve been writing my entire life, and I’ll always write.

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.

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

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

We had to go on and do the work of the court and we did.

So many people think of me as a character on TV, but first and foremost, my passion is teaching dance and creating employable, working dancers.

Football is all about fans.

Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it ‚tap-dancing to work.‘

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

I’m not much of a math and science guy. I spent most of my time in school daydreaming and managed to turn it into a living.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.

To me, it’s OK to have differences. But we don’t have to be mad about it. You know? And I think that’s where sometimes we get so passionate that we – you know, it turns into anger.

I have a lot of friends who do what I do. Either they’re actresses or singers or things like that.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

I just don’t believe in the basic concept that someone should make their whole career in public service.