People always say when they meet me that I’m not what they expect. I assume they think I’m this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

If you do things, whether it’s acting or music or painting, do it without fear – that’s my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there’s nothing to lose.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

I’ve never been a boyfriend kind of girl.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

I’ve had a few semi-toxic relationships, but it’s not what I look for when I’m seeing someone.

Hatred is self-punishment.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

When you write your first book aged 25 or so, you have 25 years of experience, albeit much of it juvenile experience. The second book comes after an extra year sitting in bookshops. Pretty soon, you begin to run on empty.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

I go to all these photo shoots, and each time I figure out something new about myself and what I want to wear.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

I think I’m like most people – we fear the unknown and the things that have yet to come to pass, which are the very things that don’t deserve to be feared. When you give God complete control, it’s very hard not to be fearless.

I have so much in my life. I want to be of value to the world.

My favorite thing in life is writing about life, specifically the parts of life concerning love. Because, as far as I’m concerned, love is absolutely everything.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn’t say I lived in a ghetto; I’d say I lived in the ‚hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.

Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

I am who I am today because of my mother.

I want to make something that is breathtaking. Of course, you can’t make something that is always breathtaking, or you would never be able to breathe. You would collapse.

Whatever is on the page is what I’m married to. I’m very prepared. I’m a thespian. I don’t like to improv. I don’t like to go off course ‚cause I think that’s where stuff happens. When you stick to the material ‚cause it’s written so well, that’s where the magic happens.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

I think I have always had a little humor.

Seeing Pax get extra-nervous about which shirt he is going to wear when he meets Aung San Suu Kyi, I get very moved. He rightfully doesn’t get nervous going to a movie premiere; he gets nervous going to meet her.

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

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

I have trouble imagining what I could do that’s beyond the practicality of what I can do.

I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.

I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.

Editing is now the easiest thing on earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing – ‚Oh, let’s put that sentence there, let’s get rid of this‘ – have become commonplace in films and music too.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child’s eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.

I’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

I think women go crazy for a reason. It’s not like it just happens.

Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.

The trained mind is a rich mind.

I seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.

Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

When you really don’t like a guy, they’re all over you, and as soon as you act like you like them, they’re no longer interested.

I never thought of losing, but now that it‘ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

Fear clogs; faith liberates.

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.

When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‚I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.‘

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.