We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed – there’s so little competition.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

I am the freest author in the world.

There’s nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, ‚Well, okay, I’m going to do something of high artistic worth.‘

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.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

Hope is not a resting place but a starting point – a cactus, not a cushion.

All good books have one thing in common – they are truer than if they had really happened.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

Every setback means you’re one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

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

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.

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.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

I see myself as the best footballer in the world. If you don’t believe you are the best, then you will never achieve all that you are capable of.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

I didn’t want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that’s a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I’m proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.

To me, the most important artists in my career are Arcangel and Balvin. Arcangel gave me the push, the respect in the streets.

A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.

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.

Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue.

The writing is important, but the way you say the line and the pause you give it, the facial expression – all of that is very important.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

Be a player; don’t play yourself. And don’t play basketball. That’s not your sport, Jeb Bush.

Competition is a sin.

That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best – make it all up – but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.

I had this dream to become a writer since I was a teenager.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you – until you get your revenge.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.

You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

Sure, women sportswriters look when they’re in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?

Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.

Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour.

It’s funny because I’ve made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.