People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

I’m not looking to get away from anything. I like what I’ve done. I like what I get to do and I enjoy working with my friends. I loved those movies, but this is incredible.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

The self is hateful.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

I’m reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States – for the century, at least.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

I always try to be myself. Ever since I was an introverted kid, I’d get on stage and be able to break out of my shell.

Love is a state of being.

Sometimes I write about my own life. And sometimes I write about situations I see my friends going through. Sometimes I write about a scene I saw in a movie. I take inspiration from all different places.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

‚They‘ are the people that don’t believe in you, that say that you won’t succeed. We stay away from ‚They.‘

In all my work, I try to say – ‚You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?‘

The best way out is always through.

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

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

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

Many people will have nothing at the end of their working lives.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

Love to everybody who is out there progressing and taking things to the next level.

If life gives you limes, make margaritas.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.