Category: Quotes

A record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

Because the sweeter the cake, the more bitter the jelly can be.

‘Born this Way’ is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

Celebrity life and media culture are probably the most overbearing pop-cultural conditions that we as young people have to deal with, because it forces us to judge ourselves.

Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are.

Equality cannot be reached if fought in a divisive way.

Even if the whole world turns their back on you, you’ll always have yourself.

Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

Every video I’m in, every magazine cover, they stretch you; they make you perfect. It’s not real life. Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well. Fight and push harder for what you believe in, you’d be surprised, you are much stronger than you think. Gay marriage is going to happen. It must.

I already am a product.

I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.

I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer and to – as my father puts it – finally have a real job.

I believe that if you have revolutionary potential, you must make the world a better place and use it.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

I do yoga, I do Bikram and I run, and I eat really healthy.

I don’t care about money.

I don’t like celebrities; I don’t hang out with them; I don’t relate to that life.

I don’t like L.A. It’s just not fun. I don’t know why, but I just don’t get it. You have to drive to get everywhere, and when it rains everybody freaks out.

I don’t like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.

I don’t like talking to celebrities.

I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.

I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way – artistically.

I don’t think I could live without hair, makeup and styling, let alone be the performer I am. I am a glamour girl through and through. I believe in the glamorous life and I live one.

I don’t think that women need to smell interesting.

I don’t view myself as outrageous – that’s not the intention. Its to be more and more original.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

I don’t want to make niche-oriented music.

I dropped out of NYU, moved out of my parent’s house, got my own place, and survived on my own. I made music and worked my way from the bottom up.

I feel like if you’re a really good human being, you can try to find something beautiful in every single person, no matter what.

I feel that my fans have cultivated my talent and they continue to nurture me.

I find it so important now to be a role model and a figure. And I know that may sound strange to some people, but most important is my connection with my fans and the connection that they breed with one another.

I got a job when I was 15 because my allowance was about $20 a week which in New York was impossible. So I used to waitress across the street from where I grew up.

I guess you could say I devoted myself so strongly to my music that for awhile I forgot about my family. But I only get one set of parents, and I think I forgot about that for a little while.

I guess you could say it’s always been my destiny to be a performer.

I had a boyfriend who told me I’d never succeed, never be nominated for a Grammy, never have a hit song, and that he hoped I’d fail. I said to him, ‘Someday, when we’re not together, you won’t be able to order a cup of coffee at the f-cking deli without hearing or seeing me.’

I had this dream and I really wanted to be a star. I was almost a monster in the way that I was fearless with my ambitions.

I have dreamt a lifetime to get on this flight to New York. I don’t care if it’s summer. Leather, high heels, and a bad attitude. Here I come.

I have never had plastic surgery, and there are many pop singers who have.

I have to be on such a strict diet constantly.

I hope that what you take away from my album is not just the music – which I did want to be fun, and I did want it to be about individuality, but please also take away from it that there’s no dream that’s too big.

I hope when I’m dead I’ll be considered an icon, though.

I just am committed wholeheartedly to theatre with no intermission.

I just want my family to be safe. Because I am sometimes polarizing, I fear for their safety.

I just want to keep writing music.

I like black because it is a vacant space.

I like pushing boundaries.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

I love being able to be political without any political affiliation.

I love Dolce & Gabbana. I love Versace. I love the crazy, more eccentric stuff.

I love imperfections.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience, it just became one.

I really wanted to break the mold of what modern touring is right now.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

I think it’s OK to be confident in yourself.

I think tolerance and acceptance and love is something that feeds every community.

I think what it really is, is that I date creative people. And I think that what intimidates them is not my purse; it’s my mind.

I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn’t exist without the performance-art element. I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

I want a baby from an Italian – possibly Sicilian – donor.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

I want my fans to know I’m there for them. I want them to see every part of me. I am never going to leave them. I want my fans to love themselves. It’s almost like I want to hypnotize them so when they hear my music they love themselves instantly.

I want you to let go of all of your insecurities. I want you to reject anyone of anything that ever made you feel like you don’t belong.

I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night.

I wanted to only create a great perfume, not any perfume that would sell, but a great artistic one that the fans would not feel cheated by.

I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.

I was called really horrible, profane names very loudly in front of huge crowds of people, and my schoolwork suffered at one point.

I was doing these performance art pop music pieces in the city. And they were a bit on the eccentric side I suppose. So people started to call me Gaga after the Queen song ‘Radio Gaga.’

I was performing in New York and my friends started to call me Gaga, they said I was very theatrical and they said, ‘You’re Gaga’.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

I was very depressed when I was 19… I would go back to my apartment every day and I would just sit there. It was quiet and it was lonely. It was still. It was just my piano and myself. I had a television and I would leave it on all the time just to feel like somebody was hanging out with me.

I work very hard, but when God opens that door for you – when life opens that door for you, I should say – I think it’s important to be giving, to return the love back.

I write music every day.

If you are not being bullied all I would say – cause I like to talk about the other side of it as well – is you know, be someone that nurtures, and if there’s someone in your class that maybe doesn’t have a lot of friends, be the person that sits with them in the cafeteria sometimes; be the bigger person.

If you don’t feel safe as a child, you can’t learn.

If you dont have any shadows, you’re not standing in the light.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next. I’m a wandering gypsy.

I’m an inventor.

I’m definitely a Polaroid camera girl. For me, what I’m really excited about is bringing back the artistry and the nature of Polaroid.

I’m doing everything that I can, working with experts, really studying the statistics to figure out a way we can make it cool or normal to be kind and loving.

I’m drawn to bad romances.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

I’m not as goal obsessed as I am process obsessed.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

I’m perpetually lonely.

I’m very free-spirited.

I’m working on bringing the instant film camera back as part of the future.

In a sense I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny.

In fact, my courage and my bravery at a young age was the thing I was bullied for, a kind of ‘Who do you think you are?’

In the book of Gaga, fame is in your heart, fame is there to comfort you, to bring you self-confidence and worth whenever you need it.

It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves, you know, to put other people down, or make fun of them, or maybe make mockery of their work and that doesn’t make me feel good at all.

It was my delusion and naivety that brought me here.

It’s funny when people say they see a lot of Madonna in me. I just feel so flattered because I love her and I am just her biggest fan. She is very strong. I love the way she does interviews -you know you won’t get anything past her.

It’s hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don’t always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.

It’s not that I’ve been dishonest, it’s just that I loathe reality.

I’ve been actually really very pleased to see how much awareness was raised around bullying, and how deeply it affects everyone. You know, you don’t have to be the loser kid in high school to be bullied. Bullying and being picked on comes in so many different forms.

I’ve had grand pianos that are more expensive than, like, a year’s worth of rent.

Lady Gaga is my name. If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

Life is a red carpet.

Listen, I’ve got the sickest ambition.

Love is an interesting thing.

My apartment is my stage, and my bedroom is my stage – they’re just not stages you’re allowed to see.

My concerts are about me being very private in public, but I’m very protective.

My father opened a restaurant. It’s so amazing… it’s so freaking delicious, but I’m telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there.

My mom and I are very close.

My mother always wanted to give back.

My next baby will be my new record.

My work as an artist is completely separate from my work as a philanthropist.

No matter how much you rehearse on that stage, once you add 30,000 screaming people with flashing cameras into the equation, it’s pretty intense.

On her song, Poker Face: I do like women. I’ve only been in love with men. I’ve never been in love with a woman, but that’s really what the song is all about, why when I was with my boyfriend, was I fantasizing about women.

People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.

Pop music will never be low brow.

Pop stars should not eat.

So there’s nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who’s cool hates – and then making it cool.

Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show.

Sometimes I find my head spinning. Not because of alcohol, but because of my life.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

Speaking purely from a musical standpoint, I think I am a great performer.

That I am artificial and attention-seeking, when the truth is that, every bit of me is devoted to love and art.

That is what fame is, isn’t it? To get the world to fall in love with you.

The blurring of fantasy and reality is something that the Japanese herald in their life, in their day-to-day commercialism.

The dieting wars have got to stop.

The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.

The last thing a young woman needs is another picture of a sexy pop star writhing in sand, covered in grease, touching herself. My image was an issue at my record label. I fought for months and cried at meetings. I got criticized for being arrogant because if you’re sure of yourself as a woman they say you’re a bitch whereas if you’re a man and you’re strong-willed it’s normal.

Then, when I’m in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it’s all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me.

There really is no difference between the bully and the victim.

They can’t scare me, if I scare them first.

To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‘Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.’ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I’m really not worth being called an artist at all.

Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.

Well, in order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth – and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.

When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves.

When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl.

When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn’t truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn’t come from your spirit and your soul, it’s an injustice to your position. And so, I’m really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.

When you’re around me and really see that all I do is live and breathe for my work, it’s not strange, it’s just Gaga.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‘What kind of music do you make?’, and you say, ‘Pop music.’ You may as well have ‘I’m not cool’ stamped on your forehead.

Whether I’m wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I’m always the same person inside.

Women need to protect themselves. You put that condom in your purse and save your own f-cking life. You have to be careful about how much you reveal to people that look up to you so much.

You shouldn’t have to have money to have a luxury fragrance.

You think I’m going to ask these sweet 14 year olds to ask their parents to buy a $100 ticket then run around in latex and lip sync? No way.

A bee is never as busy as it seems; it’s just that it can’t buzz any slower.

A good listener is usually thinking about something else.

A grouch escapes so many little annoyances that it almost pays to be one.

A loafer always has the correct time.

A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.

After a fellow gets famous it doesn’t take long for someone to bob up that used to sit by him in school.

All the world loves a good loser.

An optimist is a fellow who believes what’s going to be will be postponed.

As to those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in God’s path, give them, then, the tidings of a painful agony: on a day when these things shall be heated in hell-fire, and their foreheads, and their sides, and their backs shall be branded therewith.

Bargain… anything a customer thinks a store is losing money on.

Being an optimist after you’ve got everything you want doesn’t count.

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.

Classical music is the kind we keep thinking will turn into a tune.

Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.

Every once in a while someone without a single bad habit gets caught.

Fun is like life insurance; the older you get, the more it costs.

Getting talked about is one of the penalties for being pretty, while being above suspicion is about the only compensation for being homely.

Honesty pays, but it doesn’t seem to pay enough to suit some people.

I don’t look for much to come out of government ownership as long as we have Democrats and Republicans.

I’ll say this for adversity: people seem to be able to stand it, and that’s more than I can say for prosperity.

If capital and labor ever do get together it’s good night for the rest of us.

If some people didn’t tell you, you’d never know they’d been away on a vacation.

If there’s anything a public servant hates to do it’s something for the public.

If you haven’t seen your wife smile at a traffic cop, you haven’t seen her smile her prettiest.

It ain’t a bad plan to keep still occasionally even when you know what you’re talking about.

It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

It isn’t enough for you to love money – it’s also necessary that money should love you.

It used to be that a fellow went on the police force when everything else failed, but today he goes in the advertising game.

It’s going to be fun to watch and see how long the meek can keep the earth once they inherit it.

It’s pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

It’s the good loser who finally loses out.

It’s what a fellow thinks he knows that hurts him.

Kindness goes a long ways lots of times when it ought to stay at home.

Lack of pep is often mistaken for patience.

Live so that you can at least get the benefit of the doubt.

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

Next to a circus there ain’t nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.

No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.

No woman can be handsome by the force of features alone, any more that she can be witty by only the help of speech.

Nobody can be as agreeable as an uninvited guest.

Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet.

Nobody ever grew despondent looking for trouble.

Nobody kicks on being interrupted if it’s by applause.

Nobody works as hard for his money as the man who marries it.

Nothing is as irritating as the fellow who chats pleasantly while he’s overcharging you.

Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.

Of all the home remedies, a good wife is best.

Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn’t have as many monuments to unveil.

Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid.

Some folks can look so busy doing nothing that they seem indispensable.

The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you.

The fellow that owns his own home is always just coming out of a hardware store.

The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more.

The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them.

The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.

The world gels better every day – then worse again in the evening.

The worst feature of a new baby is its mother’s singing.

There are two ways to handle a woman, and nobody knows either of them.

There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.

There is nothing so aggravating as a fresh boy who is too old to ignore and too young to kick.

There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it?

Universal peace sounds ridiculous to the head of an average family.

We would all like to vote for the best man but he is never a candidate.

When a fellow says, “It ain’t the money but the principle of the thing,” it’s the money.

Where ignorance is bliss it’s foolish to borrow your neighbor’s newspaper.

Believe it or not, fame is not as glamorous as it seems. I think it is much harder now with all of the media outlets, and people can be pretty nasty and harsh.

Botox to me is not surgery.

Even the people I surround myself with… are wiser, a little bit older than me, where before, all my boyfriends were younger.

Every girl who has dated a football player… They all have sex the same way.

Everything family does is reflection on the other people.

First and foremost, I married for love.

For me, skinny is just a style of jeans – not a goal.

Having lots of siblings is like having built-in best friends.

He [Barack Obama] just seemed very firm about the change, and that’s, like, his motto.

Holidays are the best. I couldn’t imagine being from a small family.

I always put clothes and family photos under the mattress, in case the house burns down.

I always say you shouldn’t weigh yourself. I don’t even have a set of scales in my house.

I always wanted what Mom and Dad had.

I am a huge Eminem fan and find it flattering that he would rap about me.

I am Armenian, so of course I am obsessed with laser hair removal! Arms, bikini, legs, underarms… my entire body is hairless.

I am fascinated by crime scene investigating. I swear, I wish I was a crime scene investigator sometimes!

I am hands-on in any project that I am associated with. I just don’t want to put my face or name and lend it to a product that I’m not behind a hundred percent.

I am pretty honest about a lot of things that young girls question, like their body image.

I am really cautious about what I say and do.

I am so stereotyped into being this Hollywood girl.

I buy myself a gift every year, so this year I bought everything I wanted.

I can’t dwell.

I couldn’t care less if they say I’m pregnant with twins by my brother.

I couldn’t sacrifice my heart for a publicity stunt.

I definitely think anything I’d be in now is a permanent relationship.

I definitely want kids and I want four kids, for sure. But I need to find a husband first!

I didn’t love school.

I do rely on having a full face on.

I don’t even drink! I can’t stand the taste of alcohol. Every New Year’s Eve I try one drink and every time it makes me feel sick. So I don’t touch booze – I’m always the designated driver.

I don’t like big balls on a dog.

I don’t really have goals as far as, I want to be on a cover or something like that.

I don’t talk about money.

I don’t understand why everyone is always going on about my butt. I’m Armenian. It’s normal.

I feel lazy when I’m not working. I learned all my business sense from my dad. He always believed in me, and I think the last thing he said to me before he passed away was, ‘I know you’re gonna be OK. I’m not worried about you’.

I feel like I’m at a really happy, good space.

I get letters from little girls begging me to adopt them.

I hate to talk about myself.

I hate when women wear the wrong foundation color. It might be the worst thing on the planet when they wear their makeup too light.

I have a hit TV show.

I have cellulite, just like almost every other woman on the planet.

I have no idea where this all attention came from. I have always dressed the same – it’s nothing new. I think people just started picking up on it – I don’t even know how it happened. And there are all these rumours about whether it’s fake or if it’s real.

I have sister issues and parent issues and all sorts of things.

I have to be in a relationship in order to be intimate. I’m not the one-night-stand kind of girl. Despite the rumors.

I just feel my best when I’m all glammed up.

I know most celebrities say they don’t read what the press says about them; but to be honest; I suspect in most cases, they don’t want to admit that they actually care what is written about them. I’ll tell you straight up – I do read it! Some of it is true, a lot of it is flattering, and a lot of it is totally off the mark.

I know people think we drive around in these nice cars and we do whatever we want and our parents will pay our credit cards, but that’s not the case. Sure, my parents were generous; I got a nice car at 16, but at 18 I was cut off. I’ve worked really hard. I opened the store myself.

I know some people say it’s not the best to work with your family, but I have never understood that because it’s always worked so well for me.

I learned how to cook and do a lot of marital things.

I love curves. Being super skinny just isn’t attractive to me.

I love meeting new people and telling them about my stories and my projects that I am working on.

I love that my friends are sometimes even 20, 30 years older than me – that I can just sit and enjoy their company and their experiences.

I love the sun but don’t have the time to get a good tan and keep it year-round, so I am a huge fan of tanning products.

I love to bake, especially cupcakes. I’m really good at it.

I love to eat – Kit Kats or cookies-and-cream ice cream. I need sugar like five times a day.

I love when people underestimate me and then become pleasantly surprised.

I play into the perception of me, but it’s not really me.

I promote a healthy lifestyle.

I really see myself continuing to design clothes, fragrances.

I remember when the wave of Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek and these beautiful Hispanic women came into light, and I looked up to them and I loved them, but I was like, ‘Where are Middle Eastern women?’

I swear, I would say my prayers at night hoping that I would stop developing.

I think each shoot has a different personality.

I think if I’m 40 and I don’t have any kids and I’m not married, I would have a baby artificially inseminated. I would feel like Mary – like Jesus is my baby.

I think I’ll always be a hopeless romantic.

I think my sense of style is evolving. I’m figuring out ways to be sexy without having to flaunt it.

I think you have different soulmates throughout your life.

I urge people to learn from the mistakes of others. Please drink responsibly and it’s never acceptable to drink and drive!

I used to be super trendy and totally sexy. But I look back now and I used to want everything short and low cut and you really can’t do it all.

I want to be pregnant by the time I’m 30, hopefully.

I wanted to be a teacher.

I was always really shy so I’d never try to get a guy’s attention.

I was okay with school. My sister Kourtney was extremely smart. I always read a little slower.

I was raised with a huge Armenian influence, always hearing stories of Armenia, celebrating Armenian holidays.

I went to college for four years.

I will always believe in love, but my idea has changed from what I’ve always thought.

I would absolutely characterize myself as ambitious.

I would rather have been beaten up in the media than live a life that wasn’t happy.

I would, like, die to be in ‘Twilight’… being around all those hot guys. I want to be a vampire. I kind of want to be evil.

I’d be foolish not to take some of these opportunities that are coming my way.

If I don’t feel confident about my body, I’m not going to sit at home and feel sorry for myself and not do something about it. It’s all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it’s fitness or whatever. It’s about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.

If I like a food, I’ll eat it, even if I know it’s not good for me.

If I look at the message I’m portraying, I think it definitely is be who you are, but be your best you.

If Paris Hilton thinks my butt looks gross, I really don’t care. At least I have a butt.

If you’re a basketball player and you don’t stop and take pictures with your fans, you can have an amazing game and everyone still loves you.

I’ll have surgery at some point. I’ll never do my butt – I mean how would you sit down? But I’ll do my boobs for sure. I think at some point after I have kids they’ll need a lift and I’ll get them done.

I’m a little more shy and not comfortable dancing in front of a large crowd.

I’m at lunch, the woman at the table next to me is breast feeding her baby with no cover-up.

I’m constantly on the go.

I’m not poor; I’m not desperate, I would never attempt to sell a tape. It would humiliate me and ruin my family. I don’t need the money. It’s humiliating; it’s embarrassing. It’s something I feel very betrayed by, but I’m not pointing any fingers.

I’m the girl who’s too shy to dance in a nightclub – maybe for one song, and then that’s it.

I’m the true definition of a workaholic.

I’m totally growing up.

I’m totally not against plastic surgery. I’ve tried Botox before. That’s the only thing that I’ve done.

Is it weird that I’m now the single one? It’s definitely a change for me. I have always been the one in a relationship.

Is that not ridiculous that people thought that Justin Bieber and I were on a vacation together, on a romantic vacation, in the Bahamas, and I just happened to wear a gown as my swimsuit and red lips and he’s dressed in a suit in the ocean? Seriously who would walk to the beach like that?

It doesn’t matter if you have a valentine or not – just love yourself and be your own.

It would be really sexy to have George Clooney once. I think he is so sexy!

It’s fun to have a partner who understands your life and lets you be you.

It’s time to recognise the Armenian Genocide.

I’ve always been a businesswoman.

I’ve always been the type to fall in love fast and, with every boyfriend, I plan out my wedding in my head.

I’ve decided to sacrifice my digital life to help give real life to millions of people affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa and India. It’s true, I’m a little obsessed with Twitter, but I’m even more obsessed with fighting AIDS.

I’ve just had enough of people misrepresenting me. Get to know me and see who I am.

I’ve made mistakes in my life for sure.

I’ve never been a drinker, I’ve never gotten into drugs… You know, I think I have such a close family… I think you know my sisters do enough drinking to kind of fill up the whole family.

Leggings killed velour sweat suits! I used to only wear them until leggings came along.

Let’s just say Mason is the best birth control ever! I’m definitely happy to wait a while.

Maybe I’ll just be a good aunt.

Maybe my fairy tale has a different ending than I dreamed it would. But that’s OK.

Me and my sisters all have such different body types.

My balance is really bad. I just hope my clumsiness doesn’t show through.

My decision to end my marriage was such a risk to lose ratings and lose my fan base. I had to take that risk for my inner peace and to be happy with myself.

My mom and I had the same vision, and we want the same things. We would always make a goal list every year.

My mother has always been the social glue holding the family together.

My reality is never going to be stick-skinny.

Now is the one time in my life I can be 100% selfish. I’m not married; I don’t have kids; I can focus on my career.

People are recognizing that I am an entrepreneur and do more than be on a reality TV show.

People don’t understand the pressure on me to look perfect.

Personally, I’ve always loved the curvy look.

She [Britney Spears] said she loves me and she loves my butt and how she wants to be my lesbian lover. I mean, what do you say to that other than ‘No thanks’? Actually, maybe I would do it for a million bucks.

So far, designing is the most exciting thing I’ve done… I have a vision of what I want [the clothes] to look like in my mind and it’s fun to see it come alive on paper.

So many people rush into it and it’s all pressure because they see we’ve been together for a while.

The perfect date for me would be staying at home, making a big picnic in bed, eating Wotsits and cookies while watching cable TV.

The real Kim is very shy and reserved and not outspoken and loud like everybody assumes she is. [Dancing with the Stars] was the perfect opportunity to show the real Kim.

The word trill really really bugs me! Like who made that up?

There are always going to be ridiculous rumours.

There was at time in my life where all I wanted was a relationship, and I thought that was the most important thing.

There’s a misconception that we’re all trust-fund kids and we have it so easy. If anything, I find it the complete opposite.

There’s more pressure to be famous for being yourself than if you’re being a character.

This really makes me sad… I thought we were more forward thinking than this, and I’m disappointed in the Supreme Court for being so closed minded. Everyone… gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, everyone should have equal rights to marry who they want to.

To look and feel my best, I watch my calories and exercise.

We met the Jonas Brothers. Nick [Jonas] is so cute… I don’t think Reggie will get mad because [Nick] is, like, 15. I really shouldn’t say he’s cute. It’s a little inappropriate!

We never say the word ‘famous’ or ‘celebrity’. It makes all of us feel uncomfortable.

When I gain a pound it’s in the headlines.

When there’s so many haters and negative things, I really don’t care.

White is actually one of my favorite colors. I have a white car. I love white.

You can’t really have like high end designers for everything.

You have a better, like, looking vagina than I thought.

You have to have fun with it, you have to be cool with it.

You make mistakes, but I don’t have any regrets. I’m the kind of person who takes responsibility for it and deals with it. I learn from everything I do. I work very hard, I have so many things going on in my life. Get to know me and see who I am.

You never know what the future holds or where my life will take me.

Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values and your personal style.

Everyting negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

I played T-Mac. I cooked him. Roasted him. Wasn’t even close. Ask him, he’ll tell you. When I was about 20, we were in Germany doing some promotional stuff for that other sneaker company and we played basketball every day. We were in the gym all the time. We played three games of one-on-one to 11. I won all three games. One game I won 11-2. After the third game he said he had back spasms and couldn’t play anymore.

I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

I’m chasing perfection.

I’m not the most patient of people.

I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.

If I panic, everyone else panics.

It drives me. It gives me more fuel and more focus to have that support. They believe in me. I take that and I wear that as a badge of honor not to disappoint them.

It’s different from being 21 and you think there’s endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.

LeBron is a terrific all-around, five-on-five basketball player who’s an all-time great. But I’d get him.

My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

The Black Mamba collection of watches is me: It is my alter ego, so to speak. As I mentioned before, it is sharp, cutting edge and sleek which are characteristics I try to apply when I’m out there on the basketball court.

There’s been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that’s simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we’ve won when I score 10.

These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.

We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren’t really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.

I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

Love is trembling happiness.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

Love… it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

You have your ideology and I have mine.

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

Your friend is your needs answered.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.

A friend is nothing but a known enemy.

All drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self-esteem. They’re no good at all. But I’m not going to go around preaching against [them].

At this point I have a request for our fans. If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us – leave us alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.

Birds… Scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth. They know the truth. Screaming bloody murder all over the world in our ears, but sadly we don’t speak bird.

Don’t expect me to cry for all the reasons you had to die.

Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with with your self-esteem. They’re no good at all.

Expression and the right to express is vital, anyone can be artistic.

Grunge, isn’t that some gross shade of greenish orange?

Holding Frances in my arms is the best drug in the world.

Hope I die before I turn into Pete Townshend.

I am not well read, but when I do read, I read well.

I bought a gun and chose drugs instead.

I can’t comment on Soundgarden because I know them personally and I really like them a lot, but I have strong feelings towards Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains and bands like that. They’re obviously just corporate puppets that are just trying to jump on the alternative bandwagon – and we are being lumped into that category.

I don’t want to be a spokesperson.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

I just can’t believe anyone would start a band just to make the scene and be cool and have chicks. I just can’t believe it.

I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn’t identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music, they just wanted to fight and get laid. It was many years ago but it gave me this real hatred for the average American macho male.

I mean I like to be passionate and sincere but I also like to have fun and act like a dork. Geeks unite.

I mean it seems like there are only two options for songwriters personalities either they’re sad, tragic visionaries like morrissey or michael stipe or robert smith or there’s the goofy, nutty white boy, Hey lets party and forget everything people like Van Halen or all that other Heavy metal crap.

I really haven’t had that exciting of a life. There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life. So I pretty much like to make it up. I’d rather tell a story about somebody else.

I stared into his eyes and told him that I thought he was a respectable human. I did tell him straight out that I think his band still sucks.

I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn’t.

I think people who glamorise drugs are fucking assholes and if there’s hell they’ll go there.

I use bits and pieces of others personalities to form my own.

I was looking for something a lot heavier, yet melodic at the same time. Something different from heavy metal, a different attitude.

I won’t eat anything green.

I would like to think there’s some purity in us, yeah. Naive – y’know, purposely naive.

I would only wear a tie dyed T Shirt if it were dyed with the urine of Phil Collins and the blood of Jerry Garcia.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had voted me Most Likely To Kill Everyone At A High School Dance.

I wouldn’t wear a tie-dyed tee-shirt unless it was dyed with the urine of Phil Collins and the blood of Jerry Garcia.

I’d like to live off the band, but if not, I’ll just retire to Mexico or Yugoslavia with a few hundred dollars, grow potatoes, and learn the history of rock through back issues of Creem magazine.

I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I’m not.

If I went to jail, at least I wouldn’t have to sign autographs.

If it was up to me, I’d get more oil tanker drivers drunk. I don’t value music much. I like the Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney. I like Led Zeppelin, but I hate Robert Plant. I like the Who, but I hate Roger Daltrey.

If it’s illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got.

If you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to ask someone else first.

If you’re really a mean person you’re going to come back as a fly and eat poop.

I’m a much happier guy than a lot of people think I am.

I’m not a death rocker, and I don’t wear black.

I’m not gay, but I wish I was just to piss off the homophobes.

I’m not well-read, but when I read, I read well.

I’m so happy because today I found my friends – they’re in my head.

I’m too busy acting like I’m not Naive. I’ve seen it all, I was here first.

In Aberdeen, I hated my best friends with a passion, because they were idiots.

It is better to burn out than fade away.

It’s okay to eat fish because they don’t have any feelings.

It’s really not hard to keep your dignity and sign to a major label… Most people don’t have any dignity in the first place.

I’ve always had a problem with the average macho man – they’ve always been a threat to me.

John Lennon has been my idol all my life but he’s dead wrong about revolution… Find a representative of gluttony or oppression and blow the motherfuckers head off.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.

Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song ‘Polly’. I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience.

Mom hates dad, Dad hates mom, it all makes you feel so sad.

Music comes first; lyrics are secondary. Most of my lyrics are contradictions.

My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whinning about for years.

My lyrics are a big pile of contradictions. They’re split between very sincere opinions and feelings that I have, and sarcastic opinions and feelings that I have, and sarcastic and hopeful, humorous rebuttles towards cliche, bohemian ideals that have been exhausted for years. I meean, I like to be passionate and sincere, but I also like to have fun and act like a dork

My name is Kurt and I sing and play the guitar and I’m a walking, talking bacterial infection.

My songs have always had frustrating themes – relationships I’ve had.

People ask me what’s like to hear our song on the radio. I don’t know, I don’t listen to the radio.

Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‘nirvana’ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.

Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth. And it happens every few minutes.

Rather be dead than cool.

So remember, it’s better to burn out than fade away.

Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.

That’s what music is entertainment. The more you put yourself into it, the more of you comes out in it.

The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.

The finest day i ever had was when tomorrow never came.

The music comes first. Lyrics are second.

The sun is gone, but I have a light.

The thrill and embarrassment of becoming international pop stars was too much, so we opened our mouths and put our foot in sometimes.

The worst crime is faking it.

There is nothing I like more than pure underground music.

Thought the sun is gone, I have a light.

To be positive at all times is to ignore all that is important, sacred or valuable. To be negative at all times is to be threatened by ridiculousness and instant discredibility.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

We have no right to express an opinion until we know all of the answers.

We sound like the Bay City Rollers after an assault by Black Sabbath. And, we vomit onstage better than anyone.

We’re just a bar band, that’s all we are.

We’re so trendy we can’t even escape ourselves.

When I hear the term Right wing I think of Hitler and Satan and Civil war.

Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second rate Freudian evaluation on my lyrics when 90 percent of the time they’ve transcribed the lyrics incorrectly?

You know what i hate about rock? I hate tie-dyed tee shirts.

All the opportunities I missed because I’m so obsessively addicted to surfing. Don’t be me. I don’t have what most human beings want.

I can’t be at war with Mark Foo. If I wanted to go to war with somebody, they would cease to exist. I would win.

I’m totally into procedures and rules. We run a tight ship in my group.

It has created junkies out of most of us. Surfing junkies right? Our whole lives we drop everything to go surfing and we always will.

It’s not about surviving, I know I am going to survive, it’s all about reacting the best possible way to deal with the situation that I am in.

It’s not as hard as it looks. It’s just a question of getting your mouth at the right angle.

I’ve only known two people who successfully negotiated a triple hold. After that, you’re out of luck.

Not all surfers are big-wave surfers.

One of our biggest fears is that some surfer with the desire who hasn’t paid his dues will go out during a major swell and get hurt or even killed.

People who surf big waves on a regular basis don’t consider it a death defying act. We don’t keep the danger in our minds at all.

The ocean represents balance in my life. I get frustrated with the daily struggle of my “real life” out of the water, and being in the water in the surfer world is the antidote to that.

To get beat up by a wave, survive it, and get up to do it again in the space of 15 minutes is as much about physical conditioning as it is about mental toughness.

Unless you’ve fallen in smaller waves, and gradually build up, you won’t know how to react in a big wipeout.

You can’t imagine the thrill of riding a forty or fifty foot wave.

About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.

All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

Human beings will be happier – not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That’s my utopia.

I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it’s a very poor scheme for survival.

If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.

If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.

It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

People don’t come to church for preachments, of course, but to daydream about God.

People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they’ll have good voice boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say.

Still and all, why bother? Here’s my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.

The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn’t really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: he wasn’t going to compose Beethoven’s Fifth.

The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.

The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal.

To whom it may concern: It is springtime. It is late afternoon.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

Big waves are a whole different ball game. You’re riding a wave with an immense amount of speed and power, generally over 10 meters. On the face of the wave, obviously life and death thoughts start to happen.

Everyone is so focused on double digits, ‘are we gonna see double digits, are we gonna get to number ten, it’s the perfect number.’ You know, it’s all semantics at that point.

For a surfer, it’s never-ending. There’s always some wave you want to surf.

For me it’s sort of like time slows down. You become hyper aware of a lot of different things – the way the wave is breaking, timing, putting yourself in the right part of the barrel. It takes all of your mental capacity to do it just right.

Friends that were on tour with me 20 years ago, 10 years ago, are now family guys married with kids. They say ‘I can’t believe you’re still doing it, that you’re looking for waves every day.’

How do I carry on? With a cane.

I don’t ever want to get to the end and say I could’ve done this or that for someone. I think there are a lot of things right in front of us we either don’t know or are afraid to know the answers to. I think that’s why people seem more conservative as they get older.

I don’t know if fame has changed me.

I don’t want to change from who I am, but I’ve always wanted to become more aware of what life is all about.

I generally start my day off with hot water and lemon – to cleanse the body out after sleeping. I read about it and it seemed like a good idea. I drink a lot of coconut water, too. I generally stick with fruit in the morning. I make a lot of smoothies.

I have felt married to surfing and all it offers at times.

I just don’t think there’s much that’s admirable in doing publicity to try to sell something. I know you have to – but it’s a catch-22.

I kept a log of every heat I lost, and I would write at the bottom what I did wrong – ‘impatience’ or ‘catching too many waves.’ I would get mad at myself for missing a turn and I’d bang my head and fists against the board, head-butt it, cursing, ‘You stupid fuck!’ Only no one saw that, because I was out on the water.

I liked growing up in a small town but I also wanted to travel the world and see everywhere and meet people.

I look at it now and my surfing that won my first title would probably only be good enough to get me 30th place in today’s competition. It’s not even comparable.

I love waking up in the morning in Hawaii.

I think any kind of smoking is a really odd way to spend any time or money.

I think when a surfer becomes a surfer, it’s almost like an obligation to be an environmentalist at the same time.

I try my best to feed off of positive humans and learn from the interactions that I have with absolutely everyone.

I want to surf better tomorrow. I want to surf better in 10 years. When I’m 50 I want to be a better surfer than I am now – for me it’s a lifelong journey.

I wanted to be Steve Martin when I was a kid. I wanted to be a comedian.

I was lucky – a lot of people get addicted to pills, but I got addicted to surfing. Both are escapes. And now I equate my feelings about surfing with a certain kind of relationship, one where you’ve been abused and a girl comes along and heals the scars and puts you back on your feet. And suddenly you wake up and think, ‘do I really love this person who healed me? Why am I even with her?’ Surfing is like that girl, and now I want to see if I even like her.

I’d love to live to 120 years old and be really healthy.

I’ll tell you. Golf is the greatest game in the world.

I’m getting pretty good at getting away from signings.

It’s all about where your mind’s at.

It’s funny because depending on the day or where we are, my favorite surfer is either Andy or Bruce.

It’s like the mafia. Once you’re in – your in. There’s no getting out.

I’ve always wanted a little lower center of gravity and a stronger lower body.

Matt Kechele was a huge influence, but when I was about 8 years old I started really looking up to Buttons. Tom Curren, too, once I grew even older. Buttons was my guy though. I thought he could go upside down under the lip and stay on his board. That was the future to me.

Most people who surf don’t compete, but most people don’t compete in football but they still love it.

Music is comfort to me.

My parents, brothers and friends were all really important. Then my heroes, too – the guys I looked up to. Parents start it all for you, though.

Now it seems that every famous girl I know, I’m supposed to be sleeping with. Pretty lame.

People should focus more on basic form, the shoulder line and balance, which no one talks about, and study board shaping and wave and wind patterns.

Shane Dorian is probably the biggest push for me. We’ve always psyched each other up for all sorts of waves, from tiny to huge, and we just pushed each other mentally.

Some days I wake up and feel it’s the greatest thing on Earth, and other mornings I wake up and think it’s the worst thing on Earth and I want to get away from it.

Sometimes if you have second priority you can kinda be in control because you’re forcing the guy to make a decision to catch a wave or not instead of waiting for him to.

Surfing is my religion, if I have one.

Surfing is the best way to wake up.

Surfing was good to me for a long time. It took me away from my parents fighting constantly and getting divorced when I was 11. And from my anger at my dad. He drank a lot – I’ve seen him almost kill me in a car. I was always scared, when I was younger, to talk to him about the… drinking.

The barrel is really the ultimate ride for any surfer. It’s the eye of the storm. Some guys say it’s like being in the womb.

The fun and the challenge of it never really go away. There’s always something there to put you back in your place.

The joy of surfing is so many things combined, from the physical exertion of it, to the challenge of it, to the mental side of the sport.

There’s a ton of places I want to surf still.

We sold at least four copies, but I haven’t really checked. I love to play music.

What’s life for? I don’t think it’s for smoking pot, but I do think it’s for sitting around on the beach all day.

What’s life worth? Life’s worth experiences and it’s worth the people in your life too. I’m sure it’s different once you have a partner in your life or kids – maybe that one wave’s not that important any more.

When I was eight or 10 years old I didn’t know that I could have a career from surfing. There were pro surfers who were my heroes, but those guys weren’t rich. They were just surfing and traveling and that’s really been the goal my whole life.

Yes, it was special – they all are – but ten is just a number. It wouldn’t exist without all the others.

You have to walk before you can run and surfing small waves is surfing’s equivalent of walking and crawling.

You know, I won the world title when I was 20 and when I was 25 and nobody ever asked me whether I was going to quit. It’s not like my surfing has declined. If anything, it’s got better. It’s strictly an age thing.

Your surfing can get better on every turn, on every wave you catch. Learn to read the ocean better. A big part of my success has been wave knowledge.

A bad day at work is better than a good day in hell.
Scott Johnson

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
Albert Einstein

A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a body saying that it needs work.
Geoffrey Norman

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.
Elbert Hubbard

A man who has no office to go to – I don’t care who he is – is a trial of which you can have no conception.
George Bernard Shaw

A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.
Thomas Jefferson

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King Jr.

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy.
Ralph Ransom

Boredom is a sickness the cure for which is work; pleasure is only a palliative.
Le Duc de Lévis

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Confucius

Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.
Henry Ford

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed – there’s so little competition.
Author Unknown

Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor.
John Ciardi

Employment is nature’s physician, and is essential to human happiness.
Galen

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Thomas Jefferson

God give me work, until my life shall end. And life, until my work is done.
Winifred Holtby

God sells us all things at the price of labor.
Leonardo da Vinci

Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but it improves its chances.
B. J. Gupta

Hard work is rewarding beyond gold. Sweating is living.
Terri Guillemets

He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
Menander

Heaven is blessed with perfect rest but the blessing of earth is toil.
Henry van Dyke

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.
Alice Walker

I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.
Charles Lamb

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.
John D. Rockefeller

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.
D. H. Lawrence

I help by staying out of the way while other people are working.
Lyle Hintz Jr.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.
Ray Bradbury

I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work 15 and 16 hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example.
Mario Cuomo

I wonder if the clothes in China say, “Made around the corner.”
Unknown Author

I would rather have a big burden and a strong back, than a weak back and a caddy to carry life’s luggage.
Elbert Hubbard

Idleness begets ennui, ennui the hypochondriac, and that a diseased body. No laborious person was ever yet hysterical.
Thomas Jefferson

If a man will not work, he shall not eat.
Paul the Apostle

If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.
Doug Larson

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.
Abraham Lincoln

If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.
Lane Kirkland

If you want to kill time, try working it to death.
Sam Levonson

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson

International solidarity is not an act of charity: It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objective. The foremost of these objectives is to aid the development of humanity to the highest level possible.
Samora Machel

It is better to wear out than to rust out.
Richard Cumberland

It is labour indeed that puts the difference on everything.
John Locke

It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.
Charles Baudelaire

It is only the constant exertion and working of our sensitive, intellectual, moral, and physical machinery that keep us from rusting, and so becoming useless.
Charles Simmons

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
Theodore Roosevelt

Keep working hard and you can get anything that you want. If God gave you the talent, you should go for it. But don’t think it’s going to be easy. It’s hard!
Aaliyah

Labor Day differs in every essential from other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflict and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.
Samual Gempers

Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.
Bill Dodds

Labor Day, when we briefly pause from demonizing unions to enjoy mattress sales in their honor.
Unknown Author

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
Ulysses S. Grant

Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers.
Robert Green Ingersoll

Labor wants also pride and joy in doing good work, a sense of making or doing something beautiful or useful – to be treated with dignity and respect as brother and sister.
Thorstein Veblen

Labor was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by laor, that all weather of the world was originally purchased.
Adam Smith

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
Anatole France

Manual labor to my father was not only good and decent for it’s own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one’s thoughts.
Mary Ellen Chase

Maybe a person’s time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food.
Frank A. Clark

Men are made stronger on the realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own right arm.
Sidney J. Phillips

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.
Indira Gandhi

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level – I mean the wages of decent living.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

No great achievement is possible without persistent work.
Bertrand Russell

No labor, however humble, is dishonoring.
The Talmud

Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind.
Henry Ford

Nonbureaucratic, participative, solidarity-driven, noncommercial, arty. With all those manifest virtues, you have to wonder why a setup like this can’t seem to last any longer than a Labor Day weekend.
Bruce Sterling

Nothing got without pains but an ill name and long nails.
Scottish Proverb

People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.
Albert Einstein

Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.
Henry George

Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.
Douglas Pagels

Sweat silently. Let’s have no squawking about a little expenditure of energy.
Martin H. Fischer

Take a man out of the trenches, make him a straw boss, and he develops a belly.
Martin H. Fischer

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
Ovid

Temperance and labor are the two true physicians of man.
Jean Jacques Rousseau

The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen

The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Aristotle

The man who doesn’t relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.
Elbert Hubbard

The man who rolls up his shirt sleeves is rarely in danger of losing his shirt.
Unknown Author

The miracle of the seed and the soil is not available by affirmation; it is only available by labor.
Jim Rohn

The one thing that matters is the effort.
Antoine de Sainte-Exupery

The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself.
H. L. Mencken

The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor.
William Cobbett

There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor.
Oscar Wilde

There is no labor a person does that is undignified; if they do it right.
Bill Cosby

There is no substitute for hard work.
Thomas A. Edison

There is power, there is power in a band of working men, when they stand, hand in hand. That’s a power, that’s a power that must rule in every land.
Joe Hill

There is precious little hope to be got out of whatever keeps us industrious, but there is a chance for us whenever we cease work and become stargazers.
H. M. Tomlinson

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
Mark Twain

To labor is to pray.
Benedictines Saying

Undoubtedly, a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.
William Ellery Channing

We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.
Gerald Brenan

What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.
Samuel Gompers

What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions.
Arnold Glasow

When everything is finished, the mornings are sad.
Antonio Porchia

When I work I relax; doing nothing or entertaining visitors makes me tired.
Pablo Picasso

When people ask me, ‘Why can’t labor organize the way it did in the thirties?’ the answer is simple: everything we did then is now illegal.
Thomas Geoghegan

Without labor nothing prospers.
Sophocles

Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
Paul the Apostle

Work is less boring than amusing yourself.
Roger W. Hancock

Work is no disgrace; the disgrace is idleness.
Greek Proverb

Work isn’t to make money; you work to justify life.
Marc Chagall

Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights. All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites. Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave. Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?
Joe Hill

Workingmen are at the foundation of society. Show me that product of human endeavor in the making of which the workingman has had no share, and I will show you something that society can well dispense with.
Samuel Gompers