Perhaps it’s good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he’s happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.

I’m mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it’s the only place where I’m happy.

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.

In many ways, I’ve been writing personal stories all my life.

What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

Substitute ‚damn‘ every time you’re inclined to write ‚very‘; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Amour is the one human activity of any importance in which laughter and pleasure preponderate, if ever so slightly, over misery and pain.

Every now and then I will see a word as if for the first time, and suddenly appreciate that Evian is ‚naive‘ spelled backward, or that Bosnia is an anagram of ‚bonsai.‘

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

If you hear a voice within you say ‚you cannot paint,‘ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

I’m the king of the anthems.

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.

The whole ‚enigmatic artist‘ thing, I just ran with it.

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.

I think that’s why I put my energy into making music. That’s how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who can write.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

I do love being in my studio. Especially at night.

I have the space and liberty to create.

The artist in me cries out for design.

But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry ‚I could have thought of that‘ is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn’t, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.

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

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.

It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

As unique as we all are, an awful lot of us want the same things. We want to shake up our current less-than-fulfilling lives. We want to be happier, more loving, forgiving and connected with the people around us.

Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers – organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative – if we don’t solve these security problems, then people will hold back.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

I like the app where you can make your own memes. I make memes all the time and send them to my friends.

I think there’s every reason this 21st century will be much happier.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Particularly Instagram, people look like they have a much better life than they really do. People basically seem like they are way better-looking than they really are, and they are way happier-seeming than they really are.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

My mother was always fascinated with the fact that I could rhyme so much stuff.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

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

It’s lack that gives us inspiration. It’s not fullness.

Number of people have said to me, after hearing your thinking, their mind becomes much more happier.

You should treat a muse like a fairy.

What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

If tomorrow I want to release a rock album or I want to release a bachata album, nobody can tell me anything – why can’t I?

Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.

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.