We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

Almost everybody will listen to you when you tell your own story.

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.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

My readers – and I get 400 emails for a day, my readers normally they say, well, you understand me, and I answer, you do understand me also. We are in the same level.

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

Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

Music has the power to inspire the world.

Olympics for me is love, peace, united.

The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

People want you to fail.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

Journalism makes you think fast. You have to speak to people in all walks of life. Especially local journalism.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

There’s love, and certainly children you care about more than yourself. But nevertheless, we’re alone in our heads.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

What women need to understand is that men don’t communicate. It’s not intentional or on purpose. We’re just not as emotional. You ladies feel like you have to express yourselves.

I can’t do nothing just a little.

Normally, when someone we love is turning away from a struggle, we self-protect by also turning away. That’s definitely my first response. I think change is more likely to happen if both partners have common language and a shared lens to see problems.

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

All I have to say is basically if performing, singing, acting, and dancing is what you want to do, then you just have to do it – no matter where it is.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

Tell the children the truth.

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.‘

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

Our love, our gratitude, our admiration for our men and women in uniform, our veterans and their families – all of that is bigger than any one party or any one election.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it’s wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

Never complain and never explain.

Marriage is the death of hope.

I never wanted to be a scientist per se. I wanted to be a naturalist.

However weak we are, however poor, however little our faith, or however small our grace may be, our names are still written on His heart; nor shall we lose our share in Jesus‘ love.

War is what happens when language fails.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

We’re not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.

I dwell in possibility.

I never look at my watch when I’m sketching!

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

I’m never gonna step away from stand-up. I can’t. That’s what got me where I am, and that’s also my muse. That’s how I stay level-headed. That’s what keeps me going.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Enemies are so stimulating.