Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Everything that happens is supposed to be And it's all pre-determined, can't change your destiny Guess I'll just keep moving, someday maybe I'll get to where I'm going
I used to work at a school as a teacher's assistant, and my mom is a principal at an elementary school. I don't know, I think that's a pretty good life, teaching kids.
Festivals are always fun. I went to a lot when I was younger and had money to go to them. I like playing at festivals. They're always kind of like a big, crazy circus.
'Fill Me In' went to number one at the same time Destiny's Child released 'Say My Name.' Having a number one over Destiny's Child at their peak was just madness to me.
Due to my work as a musician, songwriter, recording artist and author, hundreds of people stream in and out of my basement studio to help me with my creative projects.
I have to feel the audience. I enjoy that feeling of community. There's something sort of spiritual about it in a lot of ways. It's like we're all doing this together.
I just try to be true to myself and look the way that I'm comfortable looking. Because if I'm comfortable with me, then you're going to be comfortable with me as well.
I never thought, in my lifetime, that you'd be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.
There are some people who physically are not beautiful. But the way they are, the way they treat people, they become beautiful, and you forget all about [their looks].
We didn't rehearse or play the songs to death before we recorded them, and that let us catch a freshness and energy level we've never really felt while making records.
Because, I figured that, because I was a successful man, I was wealthy, I was, you know, seemingly intelligent - even that I am not intelligent enough to ask for help.
And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.
The fans are very, very loyal. They're always saying, 'When is the next album?' They know when I finish in the studio it's got to be a few years before the next album.
You gave me reason to believe that we were always meant to be, but now I see you were wrong, you can't keep running back to me with all them baby baby please, No More.
When you sing in English and Spanish, it's two completely different forms of expression and... even the people who don't speak Spanish love to hear me sing in Spanish.
I think as artists we have an opportunity to shed light and share different stories and expose different realities and inspire people and give a different perspective.
I remember my boyfriend and I had just broken up, and I was like 'I don't care how much it costs, I'm getting my hair bleached!' That's really when everything changed.
This last year I kind of stopped working out. I think my body just needed a break. And so I did that, and focused more on feeling good as opposed to beating myself up.
In my life, the stories I have heard from my family, my friends, my community, and from willing strangers all over the world have been the true source of my education.
I was always more interested in the ultimate live performance rather than the recording for its own sake. And, for the audience too, that thrill of - just being there.
I heard a voice that told me I'm essential. How all my fears are limiting my potential. Said it's time to step into the light and use every bit of power i have inside.
When I vote for a candidate I always try to learn as much as I can about them, but I guess I focus a lot on environmental issues, and I tend to vote along those lines.
I've always been making up my own restrictions for myself, from day one, and it's compelling, because it forces me to think. That's always been a driving force for me.
When you're in the middle of writing a song, you can come up with this whole web of stuff only you know how to get through. That's very entertaining for me to do that.
I never use a piano stool. I always use a drum stool. Because I feel that when you're down there, you're playing in that way you're supposed to. I like to be above it.
The Police could get away with doing an entire record with really no audible reverb, which I have always admired and thought would be a lot of fun to try to re-create.
I usually know what kind of song I'm after. I know what I'm trying to do when I start. I don't always get there. But I try to visualize what it's actually going to be.
When you're on tour you definitely don't want lots of arguments. It's very important that everybody gets on because you're in close proximity a great deal of the time.
I remember back in Detroit, I used to go to the Apex Bar every night after I got off work. The bartender there used to call me Boom Boom. I don't know why, but he did.
Poor people have the blues because they're poor and hungry. Rich people can't sleep at night because they're trying to hold on to their money and everything they have.
The main focus for me is not trying to find duet partners. It's about just making great songs. I want most of my album to be in my voice because it's my point of view.
The Obamas have been a great example for the country, and I think people are getting a bit nostalgic for that now when they see what some of the alternatives might be.
Hip hop has the urgency and rebelliousness that early rock n' roll and punk had: a level of rule-breaking and flirtation with danger. It allows you to break the rules.
Having a birthday cake squashed into your face by young kids? Delicious. I always don a Santa suit at Christmas. Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.
Rock n' roll is over, don't you get it? It lasted 25 years and now gets wiped out. The Sex Pistols were the bullet in the brain. They were the last rock and roll band.
I come from the school of do it yourself mate. Unfortunately over the years there's been quite a few of, "Can you do it for us Johnny, so we can grab all your glory?".
Broadway is a very different kind of place. It's kind of like Nashville in that there's a certain amount of people that are involved, and those people are what run it.
I was wildly out of style when that television theme song suddenly pushed its way onto the Top Ten. It was certainly not the record company trying to make that happen.
I think some industries are so far behind the rest of humanity, in the way they see characters and cast shows. Once those walls get broken down, it changes everything.
I'm praying that was my one little dip in the cancer pool. I hope never to have to revisit that, but I learned a lot, I'm cancer free with a bright and hopeful future.
True love, to me, is when she's the first thought that goes through your head when you wake up and the last thought that goes through your head before you go to sleep.
The first record I spent five years writing and it was an amalgamation of all the things that happened in my life from the time I was fifteen to the time I was twenty.
Maybe when you're 18, 19, 20, you could have a bit of a wobble if you're going on live TV and playing guitar. But in your thirties you've got to just grow up about it.
When you write songs, you can't really point out the exact thing you're inspired by. It's more a state or a mood or an atmosphere that you're trying to put into words.
To me, the best love songs work on two - maybe three - different levels, where you're talking about the person who you're right opposite, and all the people like that.
Even when I haven't played in a while, I can sit down and start with a chord, and just drop into it. It's like this tunnel I go into. The zone is where I want to live.
Even if your body isn't healthy, your soul overcomes that, it doesn't even care, it worships anyway, its joyful anyway. That's what God wants to give you in your life.
It's a good time for me to pursue acting, I suppose since I'm enjoying having another medium in which to express myself. I've been getting a great response to my work.
If I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often. It’s a mysterious condition. It’s much like the life of a Catholic nun. You’re married to a mystery.
I think that all the spiritual training is just to be able to allow you to experience this from a slightly different perspective - one that's a little more stabilized.