If you've got a talent, protect it.
After a storm comes a calm.
Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Leap, and the net will appear.
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.
Either you run the day or the day runs you.
Wherever you are - be all there.
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
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.