Some of the kids in school used to call my father a fake or a phony. That kind of thing brought on a few fights.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I’ve been thinking of humorous things since I was… I can’t remember when. All the way through elementary school, all the way through junior high, all the way through high school, through college and after college, I was thinking of the same kinds of things that I say in front of an audience now.

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Be content to seem what you really are.

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

This character feels so much like my brother. He has two children. He has a wife. He works with me. He chooses to stay in New Hampshire because he wants his kids to grow up in the school they started with. He doesn’t want them to lose friends. He is his family’s hero.

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

I had nearly finished school because I was making effort not that bad on that. But there was a law in Germany after the war. You could not make your final examination before 18, so lots of people who were late because of the way had to do it first.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

I’m always attracted to people who interest me. They’ve got to be people who are really true to themselves somehow, and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting, or better, or something for somebody else. They’re interested in people.

Old is authentic. Old is genuine. Old is valuable.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

My father wasn’t a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher – one of those Victorians, hard as iron – but my dad was tough enough.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

Because we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.

There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.

Integrity means that you are the same in public as you are in private.

I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.

Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a ‚Mad Men‘ episode.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

Work is that which you dislike doing but perform for the sake of external rewards. At school, this takes the form of grades. In society, it means money, status, privilege.

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

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‚one size fits all‘ standard for happiness.

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

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

I don’t believe in doing things to manufacture my body to appeal to what I think people might like.

Who I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.

I started in action, and then I went to comedy school.

The people who truly know me know what I’m like. There have been people who try to say things that aren’t fair, and I check them. And then they don’t like me because I checked them.

Ultimately, I’m not doing that much. I’m only doing what a human being who feels wants to do – in my way, without stepping out of my flow, while staying in my lane. Without, I guess, boring people.

If you are not being bullied all I would say – cause I like to talk about the other side of it as well – is you know, be someone that nurtures, and if there’s someone in your class that maybe doesn’t have a lot of friends, be the person that sits with them in the cafeteria sometimes; be the bigger person.

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.

You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it’s open season on anybody who stutters.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

My ultimate life dream project is my kids. My family.

People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.

It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible.

My dad was like a stage mother he always pushed me to do what I wanted.

I don’t believe in endorsing a product that you don’t want to endorse.

I don’t have to show anything to anyone. There is nothing to prove.

I’m not always going to say things the perfect way, the right way. But I’m going to say how I feel.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

All I can do is try to create my own brand and have people appreciate me for that.