Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life’s not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

Bottom line: God will not allow any person to keep you from your destiny. They may be bigger, stronger, or more powerful, but God knows how to shift things around and get you to where you’re supposed to be.

I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulation of wordage, a more flowing concept, in a hope for a more new and lively path. I do personalize at times, but this only for the grace and elan of the dance.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

Honestly, I never really put the mic down.

Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

I always say I wanna work with Alicia Keys. I’m in awe of her.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‚Runaway‘ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‚That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.‘

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

Quitting doesn’t enter my mind.

A home without books is a body without soul.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

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

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

I am a grafter.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

I never dreamt, in my dream, I’m Dalai Lama.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

Children always turn to the light.

One of the things you do when you make a piece of art is you try to make the world you’d rather be in.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

I think it’s important as an artist to never forget where you’re from.

My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.

I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

Sometimes if you got a problem deep rooted in your life, it takes a little bit of time to overcome it in that area.

For me, writing a song, I sit down and the process doesn’t really involve me thinking about the demographic of people I’m trying to hit or who I want to be able to relate to the song or what genre of music it falls under.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it’s reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She’s been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there.

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.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don’t move fast, but I just keep moving.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.

I’ve had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.