One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don’t really know what we’re doing and when we do, it doesn’t seem to help.

I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

If you ever see young artists, and they’re not sounding good, they sound good. They’re good singers. They wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t sound good. It’s their nerves. Any time you see your favorite artist, and he’s or she’s screwing up or not hitting those notes, it’s not because she can’t hit it or she can’t sing; he or she is scared.

Lots of young players have triumphed at United, so why can’t it happen to me? I’m not worried I’m young – it’s an incentive to do the best I can.

Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii.

If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.

Life is about growing and improving and getting better.

I love money because I’ve earned it. I won sixty G’s with my first knockout – and the week before, I was collecting social welfare.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.

I know I’m a good professional, I know that no one’s harder on me than myself and that’s never going to change, under any circumstances.

I’m a painter in sound.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

Every album, I make big records. I’m going to always make an anthem. That’s what I do.

Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

What I enjoy most is doing something I’ve never done before.

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse.

If two smart, intelligent, clever guys sit together on a table, and you both want the same, where can be the problem? We all want to be successful.

Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

My lectures, based on Islamic teachings, were on various subjects. Some of the titles were, ‚The Intoxication of Life,‘ ‚The Purpose of Life,‘ ‚The Real Cause of Man’s Distress,‘ ‚The Journey to the Goal in Life,‘ and, one of my favorites, ‚The Heart of Man.‘ They contained important insights that spoke to something deep inside me.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

I’m always attracted to people who interest me. They’ve got to be people who are really true to themselves somehow, and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting, or better, or something for somebody else. They’re interested in people.

I got a signed document from Bullock’s saying that they had such-and-such drawings on consignment. Of course, nobody bought any of them, but otherwise, I was a big success: I had my drawings on sale at Bullock’s!

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

When you start to realise how much of what you’ve constructed of yourself is based on deception and lies, that is a horrifying realisation.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

A woman has the age she deserves.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

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

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn’t exist without the performance-art element.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.