Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, ‚No, I’m just going to write what I feel I should write.‘

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

I subscribe to the myth that an artist’s creativity comes from torment. Once that’s fixed, what do you draw on?

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

Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

Hundreds of people who’ve never written before send in ‚Dr. Who‘ scripts. They may have good ideas, but what they fail to realise is that writing for TV is incredibly complicated. They have no idea how difficult it is and what the financial commitment is.

I welcome and seek your ideas, but do not bring me small ideas; bring me big ideas to match our future.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

I have trouble imagining what I could do that’s beyond the practicality of what I can do.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

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.

Don’t be a writer; it’s a terrible way to live your life. There’s nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don’t expect anything from anybody.

No one even knows one percent of the fabulous history of Man; but thanks to history, we know about occurrences that go beyond the limits of the imaginable.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg – I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

Meditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.

No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

I used to – my earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. I’ve always heard kind of melodies in my head.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.

I don’t like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can’t do it.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

If I had a stock of fabulous sounds I would just always use them. I wouldn’t bother to find new ones.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

I think sometimes – not always – I write songs that are accessible.

I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.

Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.

In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.

There’s an ecstatic side to writing. It’s like jazz. It just has a life.

One thing about ‚Star Wars‘ that I’m really proud of is that it expands the imagination. That’s why I like the ‚Star Wars‘ toys.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

If you hear a voice within you say ‚you cannot paint,‘ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

You need to think outside the box. You need to think differently if you want to sustain what, for me, is my peak performance: the very best that I can achieve as an athlete every day.

In art the best is good enough.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

We don’t make music – it makes us.

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

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.