Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.

The secret to being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal.

Art changes posture and posture changes innocent bystanders.

If you are deliberately trying to create a future that feels safe, you will willfully ignore the future that is likely.

The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.

At the age of four, you were an artist. And at seven, you were a poet.

If school is about postponing the day you have to stand up in front of the world and put yourself at risk, the resistance would like to stay there forever.

Great work is not created for everyone. If it were, it would be average work.

How we respond to the opportunities and challenges of the outside world now determines how much the outside world values us.

Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.That would be you.

A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck.So the question is: Have you ever done that?

All of fiction is truthful. What you create is your own truth and no one can take that away or change it.

Everything had come into sharp focus : his smooth words, his black, glinting eyes, his broad experience with lies, seduction, women. I'd fallen in love with the devil.

I've been in situations like in Tokyo where people sang my song word for word and then when the music stopped, they couldn't speak to me. I've seen the music break the language barrier.

I wasn't interested in making a lot of money, but I was interested in making a lot of living.

I don't think you can revive traditions on purpose.

In fact, the only way to remain creative over time--to not be undone by our expertise--is to experiment with ignorance, to stare at things we don't fully understand.

I always feel that the best roles are written for white guys.

I don't like alien films where you don't get to see the aliens.

As a kid growing up in the back streets of Dublin I used to pretend I was playing in the World Cup with my mates out on the streets, and now I will be doing it for real.

I think a part of being successful or trying to be successful is staying true to who you are. Be genuine.