Rather be dead than cool.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

I want the world to see my body.

I hope that what you take away from my album is not just the music – which I did want to be fun, and I did want it to be about individuality, but please also take away from it that there’s no dream that’s too big.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

The only answer to fear is faith in God, knowing He loves you unconditionally and individually.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

I wanted to only create a great perfume, not any perfume that would sell, but a great artistic one that the fans would not feel cheated by.

I have the space and liberty to create.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.

When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn’t truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn’t come from your spirit and your soul, it’s an injustice to your position. And so, I’m really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.

I don’t want to be fake. I’m just being me. And I have the power to break stereotypes and whatever useless rules that society puts on us.

I’m terrified of therapy because I don’t want it to mess with my creativity.

I think that it’s okay to be mad at someone who hurt you. This isn’t about, like, the pageantry of trying to seem like nothing affects you.

I think there is a little magic in the fact that I’m so totally real but look so artificial at the same time.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you’re always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.

I looked the people of Louisiana in the eye and told them exactly what I thought in terms that normal people use.

You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

I enjoy wearing pins, and nobody tells me to do it.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

You call yourself what you want to call yourself.

I tend not to like an awful lot of what is going out under my name now because it is just all product. Who needs it?

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.

Let’s embrace being not normal!

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

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.

I do have a few little tattoos, but they were mostly done to cover scars because I’m so fair.

I periodically realize every few years that the only person whose taste I really trust is me.

I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn’t write? But that fortunately hasn’t proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

I thought one should have the attitude of ‚What do you care what other people think!‘

I always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.

The philosophical idea that there are no more distances, that we are all just one world, that we are all brothers, is such a drag! I like differences.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

I don’t want followers.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

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

There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness.

All of my music is honest.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

Every man should know, if you’re comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always worries about what the girls think, what the guys think. If you like it, do it.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

When I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.

Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be.

I’ve always had a problem with the average macho man – they’ve always been a threat to me.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

I’m not into albums that are meant to sound perfect.

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.