Nothing is more fearful than imagination without taste.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

Imagination decides everything.

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

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

A word after a word after a word is power.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

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.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

I always knew that St. Jude was an amazing organization but meeting the kids and seeing how the hospital works first hand was truly beautiful. It doesn’t feel like a regular hospital all dreary and sad. It’s a colorful, beautiful, comfortable, fun place to live and the energy is wonderful.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.

There are four Powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses: sight, hearing and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

People are terrified of me, and I want them to be.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

I think that the idea of having a different approach to every single one of my albums is so exciting to me. I never want to make the same record twice. Why do it? What’s the point?

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

When you look at the light bulb above you, you remember Thomas Alva Edison. When the telephone bell rings, you remember Alexander Graham Bell. Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. When you see the blue sky, you think of Sir C.V. Raman.

College isn’t the place to go for ideas.

I really believed that fear is contagious.

I have fun with ideas; I play with them.

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

Most of my songs have names of people I’ve met or are dear to me. There are people who have privacy issues and about people knowing about their private life. But for me, I like to include few special names and few details about them to make the song very special to me.

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

I don’t think there’s such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

To the audience, it’s like I’m changing the subject every five seconds, but to me, my show’s almost like a 90-minute song that I know exactly. I wrote every note, and I know exactly where everything is.

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

One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

We of the sinking middle class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

Fear clogs; faith liberates.

To create a new standard, it takes something that’s not just a little bit different; it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s imagination, and the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.

A good model of how to ‚work with the enemy‘ internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

I don’t have time to be lonely. And I get fearful of relationships because I feel guilty about wanting someone to be completely faithful and loyal, when I can’t even give them 10 percent of the attention that they need. It’s just the reality of my time, my life, my schedule.

But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

All good books have one thing in common – they are truer than if they had really happened.

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

I push myself in a lot of aspects when I write a song. I write a piece and where most people would stop and say, ‚Oh, that’s the hook right there,‘ I’ll move that to the first four bars of the verse and do a new hook.

For most of us, relationship with another is based on dependence, either economic or psychological. This dependence creates fear, breeds in us possessiveness, results in friction, suspicion, frustration.