Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious men who are deprived of honours or of wealth.

Happy the man when he has not the defects of his qualities.

Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius.

The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves - the creature of habits and infirmities.

I knew that I was going to have a life as a musician, because I always felt the pull. I don't remember ever having to make a choice.

I didn't have a business degree. I didn't have experience to work in somebody else's office. I never built or ran a department. So I was on this journey, and when the time came to make a decision, I was just going with my gut.

As a child, my sister and I had very fruitful imaginations, and I would think that I wanted to be one profession or I'd want to have this experience in life. I realized it's not because I actually wanted to be a Coast Guard helicopter rescue pilot or something like that - I just enjoyed the idea of playing it.

My experience in Iraq made me realize, and during the recovery, that I could have died. And I just had to do more with my life.