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.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.

My daughter doesn’t even get my humor. She’s like, ‚Um, no. I don’t get it, Dad. Mmm, no, not that one, Dad.‘

Music is not math. It’s science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

What women need to understand is that men don’t communicate. It’s not intentional or on purpose. We’re just not as emotional. You ladies feel like you have to express yourselves.

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity – and I don’t mean simple – it’ll be good, and the public will know it.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

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

If your man is a sports enthusiast, you may have to resign yourself to his spouting off in a monotone on a prize fight, football game or pennant race.

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

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.

I think when people make a record with a goal in mind – like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature – that gets in the way of writing great songs.

I’m an iPod person.

I was part of Jazzercise class. It was an aerobics routine accompanied by loud music, sounding quite awful to me. Jazzercise was popular in the ’80s and ’90s.

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

It’s probably the worst feeling in the world, when you’re deeply and madly in love with a woman and you know she’s not feeling you the same way, and you don’t know why.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‚Nice doggie‘ until you can find a rock.

There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

Obviously this song is an achievement for me in my career, but what makes me really feel good is to make Latinos feel proud. To provoke that pride that a pop figure and someone so big in music globally like Drake would sing with me completely in Spanish and create this hit ‚MIA.‘ That’s the best part of it.

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

I think I don’t take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it’s a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.

I love the song ‚I Hope You Dance‘ by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

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.

The solar system can support a trillion humans. And then we’d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins.

There’s something missing in the music industry today… and it’s music. Songs you hear don’t last, it’s just product fed to you by the industry.

I really didn’t consider myself happy or unhappy.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

Many people tell me that they don ‚t know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That’s good.

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people.

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.

No one tells me what to do with my music. Real. My mom doesn’t tell what to say, how is someone else going to?

I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

I was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole ‚enigmatic artist‘ thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me.

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

I don’t like headphones very much, and I rarely listen to music on headphones.

I don’t know if it’s changing already with ‚Joanne,‘ but my intention is to bring people together that don’t know each other and that would maybe feel awkward, but somehow be brought together by the music. That’s what I wanted to do. Because that is pure and authentic to my family history and what I stand for.

People haven’t always been there for me, but music always has.

Remember that your imagination is yours and yours alone. You have the inborn capacity to use it in any way that you choose. No one else is responsible for your imagination. Anything placed in your imagination and held there ultimately becomes your reality.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love – first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple.

I never wanted to sing. I just wanted to play rhythm guitar – hide in the back and just play.

I have so many designs and video ideas and lyrics in my head, so I always try to be productive.

You know those things that you throw the twigs into and it spits them out? That’s what I do. The branches are like life, and I throw them into my head and some of it comes out as humor.

To be clear: we have fights and problems like any other couple.

Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.