One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

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

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download.

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

All of my songs are autobiographical.

Writing is like anything else – the more you do it, the better you get at it, the easier it comes, and the less concerned you’ll be about what’s going to happen to it, where it’s going, what it sounds like, whether it’s right.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

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.

A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

If a subject excites us, if it stirs our deepest curiosity, or if we have to learn because the stakes are high, we pay much more attention. What we absorb sinks in.

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

So there’s nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who’s cool hates – and then making it cool.

For some reason, I’m really comfortable talking about my personal life in songs.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way – by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!

It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

I’m wallowing in the whole idea of just being a guy out there with a band, with songs. It’s a real enjoyment.

Sometimes I do need to go to karaoke, sometimes I need to relax.

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

It’s kind of exhilarating, walking through a crazy, insane mob. The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

I’ve always loved black culture; I don’t know any other way to put it. Since I was a kid I loved music and early jazz, Sly and the Family Stone. I’m older – I’m in my early 50s – so you’ll have to excuse me. That was always very exciting to me to connect to the culture on that level.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

I belong to a gospel choir. They know I am an atheist but they are very tolerant.

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

Why should poetry have to make sense?

I don’t think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it’s wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

There are certain sounds that I’ve found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.

I’d like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!

I just really want to get music out and tour and go places I’ve never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.

I have never used Auto-Tune in a live television performance, and I have never used Auto-Tune in any of my concerts. That is a promise.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

Latin music is universal.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

Here ends my forever memorable first High Sierra excursion. I have crossed the Range of Light, surely the brightest and best of all the Lord has built. And, rejoicing in its glory, I gladly, gratefully, hopefully pray I may see it again.

It’s time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.

Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.

I really like Lady GaGa and everything she is for her fans.

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ‚Huh. It works. It makes sense.‘

I leave the genre labeling to other people. I really do. If I were to think too hard about it, that would stifle you creatively. If you think too hard about who other people want you to be as an artist, it stops you from being who you want to be as an artist.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that’s a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that’s the thrill in fashion.