What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‚artist‘ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists – Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West – are doing the most.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles.

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

When I write a book, I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader. It’s not my business whether people like or dislike it.

My goal is to entertain myself and others.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.

I can operate in half-a-song format.

A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.

Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician.

Nothing induces me to read a novel except when I have to make money by writing about it. I detest them.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

You’re not going to make Hemingway better by adding animations.

Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.

I think a role model is a mentor – someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

I’m a writer, not a professional runner. It’s fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

He not busy being born is busy dying.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

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.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

I wake up every day inspiring myself, because God gave me life.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

Some of the stories I admire seem to zero in on one particular time and place. There isn’t a rule about this. But there’s a tidy sense about many stories I read. In my own work, I tend to cover a lot of time and to jump back and forward in time, and sometimes the way I do this is not very straightforward.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

My drive is other people’s success.

I put out one album one week, and I’m already worried about the next one. I feel a lot of emotion throughout the course of a day. But not to the point where you need to be worried about me.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.

Death means change our clothes. Clothes become old, then time to come change. So this body become old, and then time come, take young body.

Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.

I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

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.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

Aim for the highest.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.