Zen Master quotes

  • My daddy was the type that if you asked him, "Dad, am I going to get off punishment soon?" - he would extend it. It was like jail.

  • No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.

  • There is no formula to it because writing every song, for me, is a little journey. The first note has to lift you and make you go, 'What's this?' You play C, but why is it that one day it leads to G and it didn't yesterday? I don't know. It's everything. It's the walk you take in the morning, it's the night before, the meeting with people, landscapes, the chats, all of that evolves in some way into melody, but I'm not sure how it's going to happen. I'm dealing with the unknown all the time and that is exciting.

  • Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.

  • Body and mind, and spirit, all combineTo make the Creature, human and divine.Of this great trinity no part deny.Affirm, affirm, the Great Eternal I.

  • I sometimes try to write something that is actually really simple and I can't do it. So, then, it's not simple anymore. It's really hard and it gets all messed up. I sometimes sit down and try to write a song with just three chords and it doesn't work.

  • An enthusiastic desire of visiting the Old World haunted me from early childhood. I cherished a presentiment, amounting almost to belief, that I should one day behold the scenes, among which my fancy had so long wandered.

  • The Ninja Turtles made me who I am today in a big way. It was my favorite show as a kid. It got me into meditation, martial arts, speed boarding, and generally like the positive person that I am today is because of the Turtles.

  • I refused [to study under Rodin] because nothing grows under large trees.

  • I think that if your approach is one where you don't want to alienate anybody, you're going to have to soften the viewpoint or the information that you're offering to such an extent that it doesn't have the power to make any difference. You have to take that risk.