When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

I am not handsome or sexy. Of course, it’s not like I am hopeless.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

Feels good to try, but playing a father, I’m getting a little older. I see now that I’m taking it more serious and I do want that lifestyle.

Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I’ve never even been to the ‚hood. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‚hood.

Something I’ve realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we’re smart about it.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Everything in the world may be endured except continual prosperity.

From the time I was a kid, I always knew something was going to happen to me. Didn’t know exactly what.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

When we see the face of a child, we think of the future. We think of their dreams about what they might become, and what they might accomplish.

If it weren’t for painting, I wouldn’t live; I couldn’t bear the extra strain of things.

I use a stream-of-consciousness approach; if you don’t censor yourself, you end up with what you’re most concerned about, but you haven’t filtered it through your conscious mind. Then you craft it.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

Single life is so overrated.

What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come but who may be here and needs me.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

My mother loved children – she would have given anything if I had been one.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

However far back I go into my childhood, nothing seems to me more characteristic of, or more familiar in, my interior economy than the appetite or irresistible demand for some ‚Unique all-sufficing and necessary reality.‘

If we live a self-directed, self-motivated, self-centered life, always needing to get our own way, then we’re going to be miserable. In fact, many times we believe it’s our problems that are making us unhappy when, in reality, it’s because we’re focused on ourselves!

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.

Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.

I haven’t changed at all. I’m the same as when I was 11.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

I have bad reflexes. I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys.

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

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

I’ve learned never to say never.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

I never thought of losing, but now that it‘ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

When I was a young kid, I did not even dream about playing for my country. It was such a farfetched thing to play for India.