If you've got a talent, protect it.
I can, therefore I am.
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
Leap, and the net will appear.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.
Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
The dog that trots about finds a bone.
I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that's healthy when you're learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.