You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows.

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

I don’t set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

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.

A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be?

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

And poets, in my view, and I think the view of most people, do speak God’s language – it’s better, it’s finer, it’s language on a higher plane than ordinary people speak in their daily lives.

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

Strong emotions such as passion and bliss are indications that you’re connected to Spirit, or ‚inspired,‘ if you will. When you’re inspired, you activate dormant forces, and the abundance you seek in any form comes streaming into your life.

Why don’t you start believing that no matter what you have or haven’t done, that your best days are still out in front of you.

When I’m writing, I don’t feel neurotic. So it’s better for the family if I’m working.

A good thing to remember is somebody’s got it a lot worse than we do.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

I can say I’d honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I’ve written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

A lot of times, people have something that they’re afraid of. They’ve got a client that’s mad at them. They’ve got a project that’s due. And they let that stress hang over their head. I don’t let that happen.

What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think ‚outside the box,‘ people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

I’m a big perfectionist! I’m trying to channel super-confident women like Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Beyonce, because I realized that if you want something, you really have to go for it, just like they do.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.

I want to support other women because of the opportunities I’ve had – and I’ve had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

In the world today many people rightfully feel entitled to have success and the good things in life, but they usually understand it will require sacrifice and hard work.

I have retired, but if there’s anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

My interest in creating anything is that it be useful.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

I don’t know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.