Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

Every time somebody speaks of my honesty, there is someone who quivers inside me.

I had my moments of being humiliated, and then I had moments of doing something humiliating. I’m glad I lived out both roles.

Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

I didn’t try to copy my dad or fit into the pressure or the mold that everybody tried to make me fit into.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

I’m not generally a sensitive person, but I tend to be more sensitive toward others and what they’re going through. I don’t know if that’s the healthiest thing, but it’s the truth.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

I grew up in a funny way.

You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.

We all have done something unethical.

I don’t think there’s anyone who would say they don’t want or need more of God’s power in their life.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.

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 really wanted to be a model when I was little. I loved photography, and I loved being on camera. But I was short and chubby, so I couldn’t. Anyway, being an artist is way more interesting than just being a model because it’s about you and what you want to be. You’re not being treated like a clothes hanger.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.

Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God’s final word on where your lips end.

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

I’ve been lucky – all the ads I’ve got, I’ve got to be myself. I haven’t had to act too much or tried too hard to be someone I’m not. I think that’s why people sort of like them. Even the Fastrack ads I did with Genelia.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

You call yourself what you want to call yourself.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‚Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.‘ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‚I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.‘ Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, ‚Yes, I deserve it.‘

It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It’s a parallel thing in me.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched your soul.

I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and realising who I am. It’s a natural process.

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn’t, I would die.