There’s no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem.

My kind of composing is more like the work of a gardener. The gardener takes his seeds and scatters them, knowing what he is planting but not quite what will grow where and when – and he won’t necessarily be able to reproduce it again afterwards either.

The way to know life is to love many things.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

When I’m making music, I can hear all the parts, all the instruments. I can hear what it should be.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

I can say I’d honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I’ve written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

I have certain signatures, certain cutting principles. It could be a raw-edged seam; it could be leaving the lining of sheepskin exposed so it’s not perfectly finished. I invent new ways to do it, but the end goal is always the same.

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.

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

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

When I see a story, I ask: is this something I’d like to be in? Is this something I’d like to see? And if I’d like to see it, would I like to tell it?

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

Don’t be a writer; it’s a terrible way to live your life. There’s nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don’t expect anything from anybody.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

There appears to be something to do with vehicles and movement that stimulates my writing.

I think a role model is a mentor – someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

The Bible says to ‚fear not,‘ but this doesn’t mean you should never feel scared. It means when you do feel fear, keep going forward and do what you are supposed to do. Or as I like to say, do it afraid.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Style is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying. It is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward.

If it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

A solution built by an artist serves the artist more than the solution the capitalist comes up with.

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.

I hate the idea of genres.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

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

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

To create a new standard, it takes something that’s not just a little bit different; it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s imagination, and the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

I don’t control my writing – it controls me.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

Once you get into space, you can really unleash a lot of creativity, but the launch itself? I have been through all of the creative ways, and believe me, chemical rockets are the best.

Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don’t fit in a very interesting way.

In the future, you won’t buy artists‘ works; you’ll buy software that makes original pieces of ‚their‘ works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

College isn’t the place to go for ideas.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

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

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

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.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

My mother says I was writing before I was crawling. I wrote in the dirt with a twig.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.

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

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