Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Black people can be the most conservative, the most discriminating. Especially among ourselves. It wasn’t white people who said all black men have to wear baggy jeans.

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

The capability of negotiating… is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

I do not, in fact, use many puns. Certainly there are far fewer than people believe. But I suspect the ones I do occasionally use tend to hang around in people’s memories for a while.

What makes you a SEAL, what makes you a SEAL is being a good tactician on the battle field, understanding how to shoot, move, and communicate, knowing small unit maneuver warfare. That’s what makes a good SEAL, and so that is the course of instruction that I taught, was getting SEAL platoons ready for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’m a spokesman for myself. It just so happens that there’s a bunch of people that are concerned with what I have to say. I find that frightening at times because I’m just as confused as most people. I don’t have the answers for anything.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

I’m not always going to say things the perfect way, the right way. But I’m going to say how I feel.

If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn’t have been worth the Nobel Prize.

For me, genres are a way for people to easily categorize music. But it doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to limit you.

People use irony as a defense mechanism.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

My body is quite tiny, but a lot of the emotions I feel are pretty explosive. They have to come out.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

Before I speak, I have something important to say.

Foreign policy is like human relations, only people know less about each other.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I’m not like that I never shoot blanks.

People take the little bit of information they’re fed, and they draw a picture of who you are. Most of the time, it’s wrong.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, ‚No, I’m just going to write what I feel I should write.‘

A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.

My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don’t think the press has understood me.

Compassionate listening is to help the other side suffer less. If we realize that other people are the same people as we are, we are no longer angry at them.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

Silence is more eloquent than words.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

I think, a lot of times when you meet someone, you feel like you need to appear like you’re not interested in them so that they’ll be more interested in you. But what happens when you start showing him that you actually like him? What’s he gonna do then? Play the tape forward; how do you keep a guy like that? I don’t want to sign up for that.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

Who I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.

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.

To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one’s experiences in common.

Speak low, if you speak love.

I’ve been a lot more into Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, which was a bit complicated for me to understand the language of each social media, because they all talk in different ways. It’s a nice way for me to tell people I appreciate them, which I forget to do sometimes.

We do stigmatise teens a lot and see them as scary and alien.

I don’t think people are going to talk in the future. They’re going to communicate through eye contact, body language, emojis, signs.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

Language is the dress of thought.

A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it’s Mr. Vice President, because that is who he is.

Whoever the coach is, my job is to talk to him, understand him and be a better player under him and give my best.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can’t knock it.

If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.