Searching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.

God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

That terrible mood of depression of whether it’s any good or not is what is known as The Artist’s Reward.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience, it just became one.

One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

No great thing is created suddenly.

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.

We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

I like to read books. I like to listen to music.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

I’ve made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I’m allowed to write my own music.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.

Art is going to make a bigger comeback than ever. That’s the upside to things getting challenging.

I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that’s what makes them extraordinary.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.

Hope is the magic carpet that transports us from the present moment into the realm of infinite possibilities.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Water is the driving force of all nature.

The greatest story of all is Colonel Sanders. He didn’t start until he was sixty-six on a freeway bypass for his chicken shop. Anything is possible!

Music is my shining light, my favorite thing in the world. T get me to stop doing it for one second would be difficult!

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

I don’t spend that much time being introspective, believe it or not. All I know is that I grew up not questioning God because that’s how you are. God was there like the birds and the wind.

I’m no hillbilly singer.

Glory be and praise to God. I didn’t do any of this. God did. I don’t have a recipe or a blueprint. I prayed for it, and my prayers are continuing to be answered.

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.

In Hollywood the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can’t read. If they could read their stuff, they’d stop writing.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

The God of this world is riches, pleasure and pride.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

I don’t like headphones very much, and I rarely listen to music on headphones.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

When Hillary was First Lady, we went to the Beijing Women’s Conference. She courageously stood up and spoke out on behalf of human rights and women’s rights, inspiring millions to fight for a better future.

Philosophy is the highest music.

Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It’s the same with me and writing.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.

Civil disobedience’s main goal typically is to try to arouse and inspire others to join and do something. Well, sometimes that is a good tactic, sometimes not.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

Sometimes I get the start of a story from a memory, an anecdote, but that gets lost and is usually unrecognizable in the final story.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

Japan’s very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don’t think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that’s already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.