The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

I will never say something I don’t agree with or believe in… even if the reward is massive!

We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.

I’ve got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I’ve got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.

Whether I’m wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I’m always the same person inside.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

I don’t feel much pressure to fit in. I never have. I’ve always just wanted to do my thing. I have really good friends and good family, and if I don’t fit in somewhere else, I fit in at home.

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.

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.

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

I’m a painter in sound.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

It’s nice, I think, when people use your music for things you didn’t think of.

It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

When you revolutionize education, you’re taking the very mechanism of how people be smarter and do new things, and you’re priming the pump for so many incredible things.

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.

Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.

This is not a showman’s job. I will not step out of character.

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

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

You can write a short story in two hours. Two hours a day, you have a novel in a year.

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

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

I didn’t try to copy my dad or fit into the pressure or the mold that everybody tried to make me fit into.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.

It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.

I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who can write.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

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.

There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness.

Artists are losing the choice to use film. People have a love for it – the grain, how it feels, the texture.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

Never regret what you don’t write.

I do believe in God. But you won’t find me visiting temples every now and then. I believe in self-realization. Peace of mind matters a lot to me. What’s the point in doing something just for the sake of it? I’d rather do something I like doing as long as I’m being true to myself.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

In my father’s generation, the product was 80 percent of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20 percent. It now seems that 80 percent of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I’m wearing.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

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

I never experiment with anything in my books. Experimentation means you don’t know what you’re doing.

Young people can create beautiful things.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Many people look at me and think they know me but they don’t at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

I’m always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven’t thought of doing yet.

Think off-center.

Every artist wants something different out the game.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

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

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.