Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

Nothing will work unless you do.

I’ve had a fan who made a painting of my face with her fingers. I have put it up in my room. It was sweet and very different.

‚Recreative‘ is a word that I invented because in urban culture, with colloquialism, we invent so many slangs. I don’t like the way that ‚recreational‘ sounds – I don’t like to say I do a lot of ‚recreational‘ reading. I like to say that I read ‚recreatively.‘ I do a lot of ‚recreative‘ reading.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

I’ll be like Bob Hope, touring when I’m 100.

I have never been bewildered for long in any fight with our enemies – I was Armed with Insight.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

If you sit there and have that mentality of ‚triple down on what you’re good at,‘ you’re never going to grow. You’re always going to stay the same.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

If you deserve it, go get it.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

It’s a curse. I ask God to take this away from me all the time. I do not like being an artist.

Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.

We don’t make music – it makes us.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did… in fact, they admired it.

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

See that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

When you are in good form, you keep hitting the target. You may have the best match but you may still not have the goals. But scoring is most important and it feels so good that I have been knocking them in. It really boosts the morale.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

There’s nothing funnier than the human animal.

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate… but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

You might be tough, but you can only be so tough for so long, you know what I mean? The brain can only take so much damage. The body can only take so much damage.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It’s rage, it’s creativity, it’s pain, it’s hurt, but it’s the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a young mogul. I’m blessed.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

I was born with a happy heart, and I try to keep a good attitude. It’s not true that I’m happy all the time because nobody is, and we all go through our things.

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

Pop music will never be low brow.

Every artist wants something different out the game.

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

We will all fail in life, but nobody has to be a failure. Failing at a thing doesn’t make you a failure. You are only a failure when you quit trying.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.