We based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.

I can understand how some people might resent me for having the audacity to continue playing music, but it’d take a lot more than that to stop me from doing it. I started Foo Fighters because I didn’t want to retreat.

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

‚Lives‘ is one of those books I should really have written when I was younger. It is the classic childhood, adolescence, breakthrough-into-maturity book. Every beginning writer has that material – and after that, you’re not sure what you can do.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

When I got to New York City when I was 18, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn – I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point – and that was it.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Britishness is just a way of putting things together and a certain don’t care attitude about clothes. You don’t care, you just do it and it looks great.

I really want a movie made on Sachin Tendulkar’s life. That is something I’m looking forward to. There will be so much emotion to that movie.

If I’m gonna write songs about my exes, they can write songs about me. That’s how it works.

From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

I cap myself when I shop; I don’t like to spend extravagant amounts on clothes. But, I do get lent clothes for events, it’s scary to wear something so expensive, but I feel really pampered.

Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally.

Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

Aim for the highest.

From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer.

If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.

It’s a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

God wants to use you to make other people happy! And the happier you make others, the happier you will be because you reap what you sow.

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

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

It’s kind of exhilarating, walking through a crazy, insane mob. 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.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‚What kind of music do you make?‘, and you say, ‚Pop music.‘ You may as well have ‚I’m not cool‘ stamped on your forehead.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

I have too many clothes, I have too many options.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

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.

Songs don’t have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I’ve done is about alienation… about where you fit in society.

I can tell you all kinds of moral tales, but fashion and reality are vaguely different.

Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.

A song is anything that can walk by itself.

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

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

All my momma’s people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.

Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed… It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

For my generation, the bomber jacket is like a replacement for the suit jacket. It’s a piece that men wear every day, and it’s something that I would wear for any occasion, whether it’s on the street or going to an awards ceremony.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

I was probably 7 years old when I started playing the guitar and writing some serious songs.

Passions are the gales of life.