When you have nothing important or interesting to say, don’t let anyone persuade you to say it.

I’ve definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it’s a little more raw.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

For some reason, I’m really comfortable talking about my personal life in songs.

I’ve been lucky – all the ads I’ve got, I’ve got to be myself. I haven’t had to act too much or tried too hard to be someone I’m not. I think that’s why people sort of like them. Even the Fastrack ads I did with Genelia.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

Disagreement is something normal.

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

Why should I care about posterity? What’s posterity ever done for me?

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

It’s not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

In a sense I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny.

Being politically correct means saying what’s polite rather than what’s accurate. I like to be accurate.

Among the letters my readers write me, there is a certain category which is continuously growing, and which I see as a symptom of the increasing intellectualization of the relationship between readers and literature.

Nothing is to be rated higher than the value of the day.

Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.

One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your life, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there’s nothing really to talk about.

It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I’m talking to them.

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

When I came into this industry, I was never afraid to be myself.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

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.

The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself.

At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn’t matter. You said, ‚That’s an American‘ because there’s a readiness to smile and to talk to people.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

I like it when someone tells me ‚I don’t agree.‘ This is a true collaborator. When they say ‚Oh, how great, how great, how great,‘ that’s not useful.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

It’s an awful feeling to write something that you feel is really important… and to feel that you’re being published by people who really don’t get it and/or don’t really care.

Beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won’t like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it’s based on femininity.

People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they’re much more open.

After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession.

I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

You have to give others the opportunity to love who you love. If they don’t accept it, it’s their loss.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.

In art, at a certain level, there is no ‚better than.‘ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognised.