The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‚You don’t know anything.‘ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.

I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.

I definitely don’t plead guilty to being a heartthrob.

I can’t deny that label-support gave me a leg up – though not every successful artist needs it.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.

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

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Character is destiny.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.

I really wanted to be a model when I was little. I loved photography, and I loved being on camera. But I was short and chubby, so I couldn’t. Anyway, being an artist is way more interesting than just being a model because it’s about you and what you want to be. You’re not being treated like a clothes hanger.

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

My dad was very intelligent, had a very strong personality. I was amazed with my father.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

If you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

I am not solicitous to examine particularly everything here, which indeed could not be done in fifty years, because my desire is to make all possible discoveries, and return to your Highnesses, if it please our Lord, in April.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

‚For Whom the Bell Tolls‘ was a problem which I carried on each day. I knew what was going to happen in principle. But I invented what happened each day I wrote.

Over the years I’ve learned how to lock myself up in a prison of hope, knowing that God has nothing but His best planned for me. He promised me things concerning my ministry and my life.

Jealousy… is a mental cancer.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.

The presence of passion within you is the greatest gift you can receive. Treat it as a miracle.

I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

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

Generally, a writer of force is anywhere from 20 years to 200 years ahead of his generation.

Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small.

I’m hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure.

I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.

The reason I became 297 pounds is because that was comfortable. What was very uncomfortable was running. What was very uncomfortable was being on a diet. What was very uncomfortable was trying to face things that I didn’t want to face. And I also realized, when I was really big, I had no growth. Why? Because I was living comfortable.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

Wherever you write is supposed to be a little bit of a refuge, a place where you can get away from the world. The more closed in you are, the more you’re forced back on your own imagination.

But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?

I look like a casual, laid-back guy, but it’s like a circus in my head.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

I’ve always been really, really aware of my insecurities – really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.

My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.

I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.

Sometimes I’m a bit under-aggressive and sometimes a bit over. But I think it’s good to have both.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

Did you know there’s a difference between being busy and being fruitful? Did you ever stop to think that just being busy – running around in circles all day but not accomplishing anything – is the same as wasting your time? It’s frustrating to expend so much energy and time and not have any fruit from your effort!

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

Find people who will make you better.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.