You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

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 only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

My whole life and my whole career, even through my music, I tell people: let’s unify; let’s show more love.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.

I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

I should be a postage stamp, because that’s the only way I’ll ever get licked. I’m beautiful. I’m fast. I’m so mean I make medicine sick. I can’t possibly be beat.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.

If you’re doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.

Luck marches with those who give their very best.

The bravest person I’ve ever met was a young boy going through massive amounts of treatment for a very rare, complex and unpleasant disease. I last saw him at a Discworld convention, where he chose to take part in a game as an assassin. He died not long afterwards, and I wish I had his fortitude and sense of style.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

Action is the real measure of intelligence.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Lot of players lose hope because of lack of motivation.

See, winners embrace hard work.

Besides entertainment and action, I want to educate. You know, as a producer or director, we do have a responsibility to society.

I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

You are remembered for the rules you break.

I had to get rich so I could sing like I was poor again.

I have trouble imagining what I could do that’s beyond the practicality of what I can do.

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

The United States and our allies are determined: we refuse to live in the shadow of this ultimate danger.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

If you can be mentally stimulated by the workout and find out how to get through it, it’s more fun.

I don’t like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can’t do it.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.