It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It's who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.

I believe that when you work on yourself you are attracted by different more positive beings.

Facing the press is not easy but because you have to go you have to try to take a lot of positive things for yourself from these face-to-face meetings.

I don't think of myself as a role model. I do try to live in a compassionate considerate and positive way. The only advice I can offer is to find what you love to do find the joy in it and express yourself through your passion.

You should tell yourself frequently 'I will only react to constructive suggestions.' This gives you positive ammunition against your own negative thoughts and those of others.

Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it.

You should also appreciate the goodness around you and surround yourself with positive people.

Perhaps one of the only positive pieces of advice that I was ever given was that supplied by an old courtier who observed: Only two rules really count. Never miss an opportunity to relieve yourself never miss a chance to sit down and rest your feet.

Look at people for an example but then make sure to do things your way. Surround yourself with positive people.

I think especially in a world where you have so little say about what goes on in your life or in the politics of the world around you it is wonderful to go into that studio and tell yourself what to do.

I've rarely kept my distance from kind of - I don't know if we can call it politics but kind of civic engagement and that kind of thing except I tended to think 'Well do it yourself before you start telling other people what they should be doing.'

If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics - a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage - surely that proves that you are in the right?

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

My art and poetry is very political now. Because you've got to find that truth within you and express yourself. Somewhere out there I know there will be people who will listen.

I don't think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings. Deep songs don't come from the surface they come from the deep down. The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write I believe are in your heart.

You have to really dive deep back into yourself and get rid of so much modern analytical categorization. It's one of the great things poetry does.

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others it's for others to use.

I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you come and sit relax and enjoy yourself for a while.

You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have.

When you find peace within yourself you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.

You have to do something in your life that is honorable and not cowardly if you are to live in peace with yourself and for the firefighter it is fire.

Maybe it's like becoming one with the cigar. You lose yourself in it everything fades away: your worries your problems your thoughts. They fade into the smoke and the cigar and you are at peace.

You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself get more sleep and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave - win or lose.

If you cannot find peace within yourself you will never find it anywhere else.