Style is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying. It is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

I didn’t get trained by the school system like other kids, and when I did concentrate on learning, my mind was cluttered and locked by the programming of the system.

Words, words, words! They shut one off from the universe. Three quarters of the time one’s never in contact with things, only with the beastly words that stand for them.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don’t know who is calling that child.

It’s not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.

I’m never gonna step away from stand-up. I can’t. That’s what got me where I am, and that’s also my muse. That’s how I stay level-headed. That’s what keeps me going.

Glam really did plant seeds for a new identity. I think a lot of kids needed that – that sense of reinvention. Kids learned that however crazy you may think it is, there is a place for what you want to do and who you want to be.

The only way I hear gossip is if it’s big enough and loud enough for my friends to bring it up to me. Or if it’s, like, a big untrue ordeal from my publicist – and she hates making that phone call!

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

I believe that a trusting attitude and a patient attitude go hand in hand. You see, when you let go and learn to trust God, it releases joy in your life. And when you trust God, you’re able to be more patient. Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting.

Genres aren’t closed boxes. Stuff flows back and forth across the borders all the time.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

Rather be dead than cool.

I’m a writer first and a singer second.

If tomorrow I want to release a rock album or I want to release a bachata album, nobody can tell me anything – why can’t I?

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.

No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.

I don’t go around thinking I’m Ray Bradbury all the time.

So many people are looking at what’s wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what’s right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

Art raises its head where creeds relax.

When the players go home, I can’t tell them what to do, so you need to create an atmosphere of trust. I don’t want to think, ‚What are they doing now? Do I need to call them?‘

I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It’s the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.

Some animals utter a loud cry. Some are silent, and others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word; in others, it cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.

Every time you think the problem is ‚out there,‘ that very thought is the problem.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

I believe in sketching because there is something very sensitive in sketching, you know, in sketches that you don’t have out of a computer that looks the same like everybody even if, later on, the dresses are OK, but I like to sketch, and I like to see trails made after my sketches that look the same. It is you know, what I like.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

To make headway, improve your head.

I don’t need therapy. I’m not going to see a therapist; comedy acts as my therapy. I put my problems out there. I talk about them. I talk about everything before anybody has a chance.

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

Begin noticing and being careful about keeping your imagination free of thoughts that you do not wish to materialize. Instead, initiate a practice of filling your creative thoughts to overflow with ideas and wishes that you fully intend to manifest. Honor your imaginings regardless of others seeing them as crazy or impossible.

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

I don’t understand why or how we can bully each other.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‚What’s in it for me?‘

The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.

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 like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.

You fail only if you stop writing.

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

I’m a writer. I don’t support any war. That’s my principle.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

I don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

My passion is bringing storylines around and constructing a full body of work rather than just a 16-bar verse.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

A hustler has to deal with danger and risk. It’s part of the game. You cannot control it all, nor would you want to. Chaos, unknown factors are not something to be anxious about.

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks he becomes.