The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

You make ‚em, I amuse ‚em.

I think it speaks of all women having those few special things that make them feel feminine. And so when I was a little girl, I would associate Guerlain with that.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Girls are soft and pretty.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Even with all of the things that are so awful, if you walk into your yard and stay there looking at almost anything for five minutes, you will be stunned by how marvelous life is and how incredibly lucky we are to have it.

Every artist wants something different out the game.

There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn’t bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

Hope is a waking dream.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

My dear sisters, whatever your calling, whatever your circumstances, we need your impressions, your insights, and your inspiration. We need you to speak up and speak out in ward and stake councils.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

An author writes a book, and that’s the book at that point. And if the author writes the book again, then somehow something has gone wrong, if you see what I mean.

I create stars.

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man’s soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.

Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

We have one planet in our solar system that’s habitable, and that’s the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.

In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a character; there was nothing particularly new about this – death has featured in art and literature since medieval times, and for centuries we have had a fascination with the Grim Reaper.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

I remember flying in, driving down 101 in a cab, and passing by all these tech companies like Yahoo! I remember thinking, ‚Maybe someday we’ll build a company. This probably isn’t it, but one day we will.‘

If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you’re sort of writing the same song over and over again.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

Life loves the liver of it.

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith.

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

Think off-center.

There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It’s always been my way of expressing what, for me, is inexpressible by any other means.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts – the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It’s always sexy, and it’s always with the same result: making women look fantastic.

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.

The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

I don’t invest in ideas because ideas are a dime a dozen. I could steal the idea pretty quickly.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Never regret what you don’t write.

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

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.