The magic question is, 'What for?' But art is not for anything. Art is the ultimate goal.

[We often] criticize the people on TV: 'He just can't act.' 'You call that singing?' ... We get jealous not because we're evil, but because we have little artists pent up inside us.

We are all born artists. ... Almost everything kids do is art.

A novel, basically, is writing one sentence — then, without violating the scope of the first one, writing the next sentence.

I always take a close look at those who lose themselves in self portraits. They are solitary souls, prone to introspection, who have really grappled with their existence.

When the moon covers the sun, we have a solar eclipse. What do you call it when birds do that?

Novels are food for the leftover hours of life, the in-between times, the moments of waiting.

And still everything’s the same, even though I did my best to get as far away as I could.

The artistic desire reveals itself in dark form - in karaoke bars [or] trolling on the Internet.

Dont be a fish; be a frog. Swim in the water and jump when you hit ground.

Sometimes fiction is more easily understood than true events. Reality is often pathetic.

When you find that one book, that one that makes you tingle. It's almost like you found a little piece of magic.

Music from my iPod was setting my life to a dramatic soundtrack that only I could hear.

There was an Old Man of Messina, Whose daughter was named Opsibeena; She wore a small wig, and rode out on a pig, To the perfect delight of Messina.

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.

I always wear make-up as I've never seen the point of looking less than your best.

The secret of not having worries, for me at least, is to have ideas.

Elegance has a bad effect on my constitution.

Democracy is the healthful lifeblood which circulates through the veins and arteries, which supports the system, but which ought never to appear externally, and as the mere blood itself.

My first single I was nominated for a Grammy with 'Crank That,' and I lost a Grammy to Kanye West, but it was still such a big deal for me to be nominated anyway.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.