There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

I’ve lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That’s the most terrible thing about being an author – standing there at your mother’s funeral, but you don’t switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

Art’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That’s quite clear.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

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.

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

You are remembered for the rules you break.

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

Think off-center.

A record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

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

All fiction is about people, unless it’s about rabbits pretending to be people. It’s all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that’s what we call ‚the plot‘.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

Necessity… the mother of invention.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

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

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

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

I’ve always written. There’s a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother’s papers were destroyed. I’d written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

At Cornell University, my professor of European literature, Vladimir Nabokov, changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him. Choosing the right word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

I do love being in my studio. Especially at night.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

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

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

I don’t intend to stop making music.

You should treat a muse like a fairy.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

My goal in music is to create nostalgic moments.

A home without books is a body without soul.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.