Truth is, I cut my hair for freedom, not for beauty.

Lately though I've been in love with myself and I've become my own best friend.

I think everything that happens in life we're prepared for in ways we really don't really know.

I have epiphanies all the time, because I'm always thinking. I'm a thinker. I'm always writing poetry, I'm always coming to conclusions.

I like Bloomingdales, and I like a store called Scoop.

If you want to put out a song that you wrote yesterday tomorrow, go on Twitter, type in a new URL, and give it to the people!

God is in control and knowing that at the end of the day what happens - whether I'm comfortable with it or not or afraid of it or not - that God is in control.

I used to be so afraid to say what I really think.

I rarely do things based on what everybody else is doing; I never have.

When you're an artist you're speaking about life, you're talking about your experience here on the planet. So essentially, that's what I do when I'm writing songs.

When I was in school I used to prank my teachers all the time. But I was really, really nice. I love to make people laugh. And even in those pranks, the teachers would laugh most of the time.

But giving up's easy. You know what's hard? To believe in your own worth, to know you've got something special in you even if nobody else can see it. Even when you can't.

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.

Poetry, for me, is the answer to, 'How does one stay sane when private lives are being ransacked by public events?' It's something that hangs over your head all the time.

Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

Too much of the animal disfigures the civilized human being, too much culture makes a sick animal.

The question in life is not whether you get knocked down. You will. The question is, are you ready to get back up... And fight for what you believe in?

Great news for someone is always bad news for someone else

I have to admit I didn't do as much as I should have back when I was mayor, but now we're getting it done. It's not where you've been but where you're going.

Many Americans don't mourn in public anymore - we don't wear black, we don't beat our chests and wail.