Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

The United States of America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins. The killers will fail, and the Iraqi people will live in freedom.

There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

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.

If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little – somebody who is obsessed by Making.

We will not be intimidated or pushed off the world stage by people who do not like what we stand for, and that is, freedom, democracy and the fight against disease, poverty and terrorism.

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

Few people have the imagination for reality.

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.

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

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

In matters of truth the fact that you don’t want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

I’ve always felt that what I have going for me is not my imagination, because everyone has an imagination. What I have is a relentlessly controlled imagination. What looks like wild invention is actually quite carefully calculated.

I don’t know that much about who directs what movies, but I’m definitely inspired by the look of old movies; I find them to be really beautiful.

I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself.

That terrible mood of depression of whether it’s any good or not is what is known as The Artist’s Reward.

The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy – the one that’s absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.

When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That’s what inspired the ‚Off to the Races‘ melodies. That’s one of the times when you’re feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

I love those who do not know how to live for today.

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

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.

Remember that your imagination is yours and yours alone. You have the inborn capacity to use it in any way that you choose. No one else is responsible for your imagination. Anything placed in your imagination and held there ultimately becomes your reality.

Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.

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

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.

I’ve got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I’ve got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

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.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

But I think there are a set of experiences that turn a potential writer into a working writer, and then there are places in your life were you start to recognize what you want to do.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

I just want to keep pushing the envelope without it feeling forced.

Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of ‚I know.‘ Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas.

I’m terrified of therapy because I don’t want it to mess with my creativity.

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

No pressure, no diamonds.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

I am a professional sportswriter, among other things, and I take the games seriously. It is only one of my many powerful addictions, and I don’t mind admitting any of them.

Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.