Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.

No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

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

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

Diana Ross is a big inspiration to all of us. We all grew up watching everything about her – her mike placement, her grace, her style and her class.

I couldn’t have written things like ‚Low‘ and ‚Heroes,‘ those particular albums, if it hadn’t have been for Berlin and the kind of atmosphere I felt there.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

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.

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

Whatever is well said by another, is mine.

I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician.

I love those who do not know how to live for today.

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.

I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

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

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

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.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

I’m chasing perfection.

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

Life loves the liver of it.

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes‘ palaces.

I’ve been blessed to be somebody that’s been climbing that success mountain top for years of hard work, you know, but now it’s all connecting. And now, the whole world is watching, you know what I’m saying, and it feels good ‚cause it’s good energy. This is all positive vibes, and good vibes and good energy, so it feels incredible.

In art, at a certain level, there is no ‚better than.‘ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognised.

When I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.

How I love David Bowie.

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

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.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour.

When we speak of faith – the faith that can move mountains – we are not speaking of faith in general but of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.

God has equipped you to handle difficult things. In fact, He has already planted the seeds of discipline and self-control inside you. You just have to water those seeds with His Word to make them grow!