Sometimes I write about my own life. And sometimes I write about situations I see my friends going through. Sometimes I write about a scene I saw in a movie. I take inspiration from all different places.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

I’m pretty laid-back in real life. I just love hanging with my friends and making jokes. The jokes don’t stop – literally, all day.

There’s hope for everyone. That’s what makes the world go round.

I believe in Coach Louis Wong. He is so much more than just a football coach.

You see things; and you say ‚Why?‘ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‚Why not?‘

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

The most successful detectives owe their success to noticing small signs. Scouts are natural detectives and never let the smallest detail escape them. These small things are called by Scouts ‚Sign.‘

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

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.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.

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

I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems… It’s got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.

The first time I ever saw snow skis was when I was 62 years old and that was 19 years ago and I’m still skiing. So, we’ll be skiing with some very close friends of the Carter Center letting them know what the Carter Center is doing around the world. We have programs in over 65 countries.

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

Cast away your sloth, your lethargy, your coldness, or whatever interferes with your chaste and pure love for Christ, your soul’s husband. Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul’s range of delight.

My drive is other people’s success.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!

I never had to choose a subject – my subject rather chose me.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

To create something you must be something.

A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

I didn’t know any gay people in my childhood.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

All of my friends who have younger siblings who are going to college or high school – my number one piece of advice is: You should learn how to program.

I’ve learned people are watching, so don’t do nothing stupid.

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering – because you can’t take it in all at once.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

Snoop ain’t never cosigned me, but I know everybody is like, ‚That’s the next Snoop.‘ Nah, I’m Nipsey, and I got to work to define myself.

The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.

My job is to bring out in people what they wouldn’t dare do themselves.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted.

I want people to draw strength from me.