When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go – that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.

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.

I am just one human being.

The human race is governed by its imagination.

We’re all dreamers.

As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

I didn’t want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field.

God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner.

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.

Music is really driving my whole life.

The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I’m just like, ‚Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do‘.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

Young people can create beautiful things.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.

Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.

A self-taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Protect your enthusiasm from the negativity of others.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

I used to get into a lot of fights.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

Life is a lively process of becoming.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.

Big results require big ambitions.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

I try to be the same person I was yesterday.