“And the appreciation of fans can refuel your spiritual tank in those situations. But until you’re famous, people don’t realize how difficult that is.”

You have too take from each artist what works for you, and then create your own sound.

I’m trying to bring the romance back to music. Old school… Music is meant to be a part of your blood stream, and if it doesn’t affect your bloodstream, then you may as well put it back in the shoebox underneath the bed.

My instinct is to put my sadness aside, and give them a smile or a hug, no matter how bad I’m feeling.

I don’t discuss my family with the press; I discuss my family with my family. If you notice, when you hear something sensational in the press about me.

That’s the worst. Imagine going through a scandal, or a divorce, or a death in the family, and running into fans on the street. Because of where my heart is.

I’m a human being just like you are. And I hurt and love just like everybody else, and people tend to forget that.

I want to be remembered as a man who was positive, who made a difference, and who walked in God’s light.

When I look in the mirror, I see a gentleman getting a little older and a little wiser.

You put different combinations in the mix and it becomes something unique in the end.

The hardest part about being a celebrity is having to heal on a public stage.

I don’t respond to it publicly, because a lot of things are put out there simply for the attention. Things that are meaningful, you don’t need to talk about.

Prayer and encouraging words change things. We’re all human. We all go through stuff.

I don’t have a negative bone in my body. That’s why I could care less about any gossip. It doesn’t interest me. I’d rather sit down and write a song.

I think I’m one of the friendliest celebrities around, because I’ll stop to talk to anybody who recognizes me.

So my mother set the foundation for my appreciation for nature and my empathy for other people.

Their silence is enough praise.

You can’t appreciate home till you’ve left it, money till it’s spent, your wife till she’s joined a woman’s club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.

Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make: do we try to claim as much value as we can, or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return?

If you want to create vital, long-lasting love, you must become a master of verbal & nonverbal appreciation.

Spare yourself from seeking love, approval, or appreciation-from anyone. And watch what happens in reality, just for fun.

Which led me into a new appreciation of middle [William Butler ] Yeats, of the short three-beat line and forward-driving syntax, and that paid in, in turn to a poem like Casualty in Field Work.

In the 1970s, for example, I found myself learning to relish the poetry of Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Wyatt, and getting a handle on poetry of plainer speech than I had dwelt with heretofore.