“Artists die twice. First creatively. Then physically. The second one is the easiest.”

Going in one more round when you don’t think you can – that’s what makes all the difference in your life.

I’d rather do something I love badly than to feel bad about not doing something I love.

I learned the real meaning of love. Love is absolute loyalty. People fade, looks fade, but loyalty never fades. You can depend so much on certain people, you can set your watch by them. And that’s love, even if it doesn’t seem very exciting.

Real love is when you become selfless and you are more concerned about your mate’s or children’s egos than your own. You’re now a giver instead of a taker.

In the movies, I kill guys with an axe. In real life, I can’t control a nine-year-old girl.

I have great expectations for the future, because the past was highly overrated.

When you’re scared, when you’re hanging on, when life is hurting you, then you’re going to see what you’re really made of.

With a lot of comedians, one of their major attributes is that they look comedic, with a certain hangdog or manic expression. I look like the neighborhood bully. That doesn’t elicit laughter.

I’m the Hiroshima of love.

No one will hit you harder than life itself. It doesn’t matter how hard you hit back. It’s about how much you can take, and keep fighting, how much you can suffer and keep moving forward. That’s how you win.

I watch a lot of news, and I watch musical shows because I think the music of the young people is really their news reports. They let you know how their country is going through their eyes, and about their experiences in the everyday shock of growing up.

I don’t fall into the physical manifestation of a man of letters. So I guess people assume the scripts are delivered to me under the door.

The way to be successful in Hollywood is to be as obnoxious as the next guy.

The only happy artist is a dead artist, because only then you can’t change. After I die, I’ll probably come back as a paintbrush.

We do two things in life: We race the clock and everything is a struggle. One way or not, it’s a metaphorical battle all of the time.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist.

The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people’s eyes before you even put out an album.

A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.

The great artist is the simplifier.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.