Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

Applause waits on success.

How I love David Bowie.

One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

Those whom the gods love grow young.

Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world. But the truth is you really don’t.

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

These are not dark days: these are great days – the greatest days our country has ever lived.

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

No man was ever great by imitation.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

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.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

If I’m gonna write songs about my exes, they can write songs about me. That’s how it works.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.

Never regret what you don’t write.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

We represent a hustler. I think we represent inspiration. I think we represent, you know, staying down. I think we represent building yourself up from the bootstraps.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

Music is this divine thing, the closest that we can get to something divine. It’s like this instinct we all own, and some of us have found a way to hear that music and write it down and share it with people.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.

Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Men are only as great as they are kind.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!

I use my celebrity status to inspire someone, to give them hope.

I tell everybody, I get so much because I give so much. I give freely, I give all my time, give all my money, give all of my soul. I try to motivate people. I try to inspire them.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.