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.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

My dad always said, ‚Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.‘

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

Madonna, I think, is the greatest visual musical artist that we’ve ever had. If you look at her photo log, the photographers that she was able to work with throughout her career framed her in the proper way. It was the proper context. It was that visual that made sure that everything was gonna cut through in a certain way.

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God.

I want people to draw strength from me.

I ain’t here to argue about his facial features. Or here to convert atheists into believers. I’m just trying to say the way school need teachers the way Kathie Lee needed Regis that’s the way yall need Jesus.

Whatever is on the page is what I’m married to. I’m very prepared. I’m a thespian. I don’t like to improv. I don’t like to go off course ‚cause I think that’s where stuff happens. When you stick to the material ‚cause it’s written so well, that’s where the magic happens.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

I serve God.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

I put out one album one week, and I’m already worried about the next one. I feel a lot of emotion throughout the course of a day. But not to the point where you need to be worried about me.

I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

I love those who yearn for the impossible.

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

People often speak of God being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased, in favor of the weak, of the despised.

It is a joy to be an artist, but it doesn’t mean very much unless that work is somehow useful in some way and contributes to others.

I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn’t exist without the performance-art element.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

Many churches of all persuasions are hiring research agencies to poll neighborhoods, asking what kind of church they prefer. Then the local churches design themselves to fit the desires of the people. True faith in God that demands selflessness is being replaced by trendy religion that serves the selfish.

In a budget, how important is art versus music versus athletics versus computer programming? At the end of the day, some of those trade-offs will be made politically.

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.

We all have two lives: an inner life and an outer life. Your inner life is your soul life, which includes your mind, will and emotions. Your outer life is your physical life. And while God cares about every detail of your life, He is more concerned with your inner life than your outer life.

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny. And wonderful.

I create stars.

When you become a Christian, something truly amazing happens: God comes to live inside your heart. You become the home of God.

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

It’s with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.

There’s no formula.

God’s Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

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

Cause when you’re sequencing a record, you want the listener to stick with it from beginning to end, and in order to do that, you really have to map out the journey from the first song to the last.

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

If I heard someone else singing like me, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

We tend to mistake music for the physical object.

I’m fascinated by musicians who don’t completely understand their territory; that’s when you do your best work.

If there really is a god, then he really looks after me.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

My music is a luxury.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

I have always believed in God.