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

In this knowledge-worker age, it’s now increasingly tied to doing well in school so you can get into better grad schools so you can get better jobs – so the pressure to do well is really high.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

I wrote a few children’s books… not on purpose.

Even the best and biggest teams in the world do not reach finals of tournaments.

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

I think the message has already been sent to Hollywood, which is that this kid’s a hard worker, he’s talented, and people are coming out to see him. And when you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up.

With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‚Are people interested?‘ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.

I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.

With all the… success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.

People use technology only to mean digital technology. Technology is actually everything we make.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

It’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.

Every now and then I will see a word as if for the first time, and suddenly appreciate that Evian is ‚naive‘ spelled backward, or that Bosnia is an anagram of ‚bonsai.‘

I didn’t take many penalties, but I never missed one.

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

I’ve never gone into business to make money. Every Virgin product and service has been made into a reality to make a positive difference in people’s lives. And by focusing on the happiness of our customers, we have been able to build a successful group of companies.

Tesla is becoming a real car company.

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you’d be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake. I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

People don’t care about what someone says about you in a movie – or even what you say, right? They care about what you build. And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.

Few people have the imagination for reality.

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

I feel very strongly that SpaceX would not have been able to get started, nor would we have made the progress that we have, without the help of NASA.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.

Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

Woz is living his own life now. He hasn’t been around Apple for about five years. But what he did will go down in history.

Whatever is on the page is what I’m married to. I’m very prepared. I’m a thespian. I don’t like to improv. I don’t like to go off course ‚cause I think that’s where stuff happens. When you stick to the material ‚cause it’s written so well, that’s where the magic happens.

At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.

The good thing about having chemistry is, when you get to the improv section of a scene, you’ve got somebody to feed off. It can go on and on and on, and the sky’s the limit.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

Fame itself… doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

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.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.