Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I live between Jamaica and Paris.
I think we all have a role to play in life.
I love to create and that's what gives my soul the satisfaction.
Good thinking brings good feeling and good feeling brings good thinking.
I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.
Got your mind set on a dream, you can get it though how hard it may seem.
I grew up in the church and had always questioned what they were telling me.
If I could change one thing about myself... I would try to control my generosity.
The music that I represent and helped to create and establish was born in Jamaica.
People might say, 'Jimmy Cliff, you've done a lot, achieved a lot. What more can you want?
People might say, 'Jimmy Cliff, you've done a lot, achieved a lot. What more can you want?'
I've abused myself a lot over the years. But my voice is still intact - really, it's better.
I have not become the artist I believe I am. I want to become a stadium act. I'm not done at all.
In the country, people are kind. In the city, people are hard an' cold, like the concrete and steel.
If I don't channel pain into a song, I play my guitar or play the piano or play my drums, or go swimming.
The love is the part of us that can never go. It's the essence that was always there, so that can never go.
Certain artists have a role to echo the echoes of the people and that's what I'll be doing on my next album.
My pigment is of the earth, and collecting my sacred fire from my solar plexus with the central sun of the earth.
The first thing I wanted to be was an actor, even before I wanted to be a singer, before I discovered I could sing.
I've done a lot of things to become what I've become, out to create and establish a musical form and I call it movie.
People in the Hall of Fame tend to clap their hands and say, 'OK, I've done it all,' but for me, it was a new beginning.
Rome was not built in a day Opposition will come your way But the harder the battle you see It's the sweeter the victory
We're not to be surprised at all what we see happening in every part of the world. It's a change of the return of things.
I have a career, which is important, but my family is the priority. First family, and then career. It's a delicate balance.
Social justice has always been a part of my inspiration. For example, when the Vietnam War was going on, I wrote a song about that.
I was a songwriter and I've written some good songs, but there are lots of greater songs that I know I have inside yet to come out.
In hindsight, I see the great value of family and how it moulded my life and kept me together. So now family means everything to me.
I had the global outlook that I really wanted to capture the world. I would like the attention of the world at least and I wanted that.
Since we're coming into a rebirth, and there's a consciousness of health, because the disease that is death, we are able to overcome that.
We need that expression. Whether we want to call it protest or not, we need to express and echo the echoes of the people. Artists need to do that.
I would love to see no more ghettos but the things is, there's no diplomacy in the ghetto. They want to tell you something, they tell you straight!
Basically, I'm motivated to write about sociopolitical issues as well as relationships. I think those themes have stayed with me throughout my life.
I'm very attached to my family and protective of them and miss them, and that situation, my connection with that can make me become very vulnerable.
I'm an artist. And I'm happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it.
We're coming into a rebirth of the planet. And some cultures have echoed it, such as the Mayans have echoed that, and it came from the ancient Egyptians.
I wanted to travel the world - I don't how that idea got in my head, but I really wanted to see the world... towns, cities, countries, I wanted to see them all.
When I lived in the U.K., I recorded a lot of ska and rock-steady styles of Jamaican music. But people there weren't accepting it. So I began using a faster reggae beat.
I used to do a little acting in school. It was my first love, and I really thought I would be doing it as a career. I really wanted to complete that part of my ambition.
Someone like Katy Perry - I like her writing because I listen to music as a songwriter. I like a lot of her songs - like, 'Firework' is a song that I think I could write.
And I keep on fighting for the things I want. Though I know that when you're dead you can't. But I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.
I don't think a songwriter should lose their mojo. In my situation, I'm one of those artists that lasts over a long period rather than have your moment and your moment is gone.
I am not one of those artists who is cemented in one way. I am able to, you know, make the happy, jovial, lighthearted music too. We need that in life too. So it's like that to me.
Beyond everything else, that's one of the things that kept us going, that keeps me going, you know, the eternal love, knowing that I am in the love of the all and all love is in me.
My role is the shepherd's role. The shepherd is the one who opens the gate and allows the flock to go through and whoever opens the gate has to close it, and the gate is not yet closed.
I regret I didn't ever learn how to fly a plane. I had the opportunity when I started to make some money, and I regret I didn't really take the time out and put the effort in and do that.
There are goals that I had set out for myself as an artist. I have accomplished some of them - becoming accepted all over the world - however, other parts of my goals have not been completed.
I visit studios. Just to get the feel, the smell, and see what other people are doing. Not only listening to the radio, but going to studios, greeting musicians and artists, just getting a vibe.
With acting, you have to become someone else. That's the fun part of it for me - to step outside of yourself and become a character. I guess being Jimmy Cliff is a little bit of a character, too.
Everyone needs to realize why am I here? It comes in everyone's life; you ask why am I here? What am I doing? Once you are able to answer that question for yourself honestly, you have smooth sailing.
If you go out to Hollywood you'll find a lot of fantastic plastic people there in the business and a lot of people in life generally. They find it so hard to be themselves that they have to be plastic.