Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

While working on my first five books, I kept wishing I was writing a novel. I thought until you wrote a novel, you weren’t taken seriously as a writer. It used to trouble me a lot, but nothing troubles me now, and besides, there has been a change. I think short stories are taken more seriously now than they were.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Rap was more of a release for me, a journal.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

I’ve never been a very prolific person, so when creativity flows, it flows. I find myself scribbling on little notepads and pieces of loose paper, which results in a very small portion of my writings to ever show up in true form.

I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

I always try to be myself. Ever since I was an introverted kid, I’d get on stage and be able to break out of my shell.

Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I’ve seen on some of the songs that I’ve written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

I have always been that girl in the back who doesn’t say anything.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

I can’t consciously explain how people feel after reading my books. All is too personal.

Writing bores me so.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It’s always sexy, and it’s always with the same result: making women look fantastic.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Your feelings so are important to write down, to capture, and to remember because today you’re heartbroken, but tomorrow you’ll be in love again.

I like sitting and writing with my buddies.

I always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.

I feel like when I try to fit in, it comes across as not genuine, and that is not good. I’d rather just do me and have people say, ‚Oh. That’s interesting,‘ than try to fit in.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

You know those things that you throw the twigs into and it spits them out? That’s what I do. The branches are like life, and I throw them into my head and some of it comes out as humor.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

All through my writing life, I’ve had this impulse to write autobiographical works.

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‚You’re going to do it my way.‘ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‚You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.‘

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

An artist or a creative person of any kind goes about their work because it’s their path, it’s what excites them, it’s what aligns their soul with who they truly are, who they showed up to be.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

People always say when they meet me that I’m not what they expect. I assume they think I’m this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

I’ve been writing since I was really young, so I considered myself a writer for a really long time.

Generally, a writer of force is anywhere from 20 years to 200 years ahead of his generation.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Leadership is influence.

I think I write in a fairly self-confident manner.

Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it’s saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

It’s kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else’s hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them.