Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Find Gratitude Happiness will follow you.

Okay, babe, I'm here.”

A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years’ sincere, obedient dedication.

You Say To People 'Throw Off Your Chains' And They Make New Chains For Themselves?

You make my heart shake bend and break

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

The impulse for much writing is homesickness. You are trying to get back home, and in your writing you are invoking that home, so you are assuaging the homesickness.

I sing songs that I have lived or I write them because I have lived them. I think the believability factor is key.

I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world.

Tell me about the rains that washed and wore you down. About the travels you took to find yourself and how you left a part of you in every place, yet somehow always came back more complete.