You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way – artistically.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

My ‚fear‘ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

I imagine I will be less involved in film and be focused more on family and foreign affairs.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

By taking responsibility for how you choose to respond to anything or anyone, you’re aligning yourself with the beautiful dance of life.

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

If it doesn’t work out there will never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

What keeps me going is goals.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

I’ve experienced great things, I’ve experienced great tragedies. I’ve done almost everything I could possibly ever imagine doing, but I just know that there’s more.

As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

I look at where I’m at today and realize that most of my success is owed to the mentors that was in my life.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.

Imagine your family finally making it from nothing to something, and finally getting things going, and finally buying a beautiful house and taking care of your children – and the next day, it’s completely all gone. Zero. Boom. Flat broke. So that’s when I had to man up.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

I don’t think I’m such an amazing person who needs to be written about.

I always thought it was wrong for me to take credit for the work that I did. I don’t think that anymore.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‚I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,‘ and I actually meant it.

I was brought up to believe that the worst thing you could do was ‚call attention to yourself,‘ or ‚think you were smart.‘ My mother was an exception to this rule and was punished by the early onset of Parkinson’s disease.

The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?