These are all personal crises, I’m sure, that I manifest in a song format and project into physical situations. You make little stories up about how you feel. It’s as simple as that.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.

All the songs I write are about human dynamics, whether it’s with girlfriends, boyfriends, or family.

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn’t a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

Fantasy is uni-age. You can start it in the creche, and it follows you to death.

I’ve still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, ‚You know, that’s the truth. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t a six-foot black girl, but that’s the truth.‘

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

Somewhere deep down there’s a decent man in me, he just can’t be found.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name.

Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can’t expect an angel to look out.

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

We’re always looking over our shoulders, ‚what they will think, what the press will think, what will this one – am I making the right career move?‘ When you’re young you have to do all that to survive, I suppose.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

I’ve been to those places where it’s ‚poor, pitiful me.‘

See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.

I push myself in a lot of aspects when I write a song. I write a piece and where most people would stop and say, ‚Oh, that’s the hook right there,‘ I’ll move that to the first four bars of the verse and do a new hook.

Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.

To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?

I don’t do research. I never have.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk.

When I write, I try to become different characters.

Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart.

Doing graphic novels is cool! It’s fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.

Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.

When I’m a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It’s somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.

If you listen through the screen of your desires, then you obviously listen to your own voice; you are listening to your own desires.

I try not to think about my life. I have no life. I need therapy.

I will be unhappy if I know I have not accomplished something I should have done that was possible.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

One of the things that I tell beginning writers is this: If you describe a landscape, or a cityscape, or a seascape, always be sure to put a human figure somewhere in the scene. Why? Because readers are human beings, mostly interested in human beings. People are humanists. Most of them are humanists, that is.

God is speaking to us. But are we listening to Him? When our conscience begins to nudge us for whatever reason, we might have this low-level misery or uneasiness about whatever it is we’ve done or we’re about to do. At times like this, it’s wise to prayerfully consider whether we’re offending God with our actions.

Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

As a kid, I’d go into the bathroom when I was having a tantrum. I’d be in the bathroom crying, studying myself in the mirror. I was preparing for future roles.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

Nobody knows me.

You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it’s always just one person encountering the book, it’s not an audience, it’s one to one.

I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.

I think sometimes – not always – I write songs that are accessible.

One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is choosing the kind of universe you exist in: is it helpful and supportive or hostile and unsupportive? Your answer to this question will make all the difference in terms of how you live your life and what kind of Divine assistance you attract.

I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

The book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It’s the thing that people create.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.