Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Escapism and wonder is influence. It makes you feel good, and that allows you to do things. You just keep on moving ahead, and you say, 'God, is this wonderful - do I appreciate it.'
I wasn't aware that the world thought I was so weird and bizarre. But when you grow up, like I did, in front of 100 million people since the age of 5, you're automatically different.
We're constantly being fed images and being told what to like and what is good, and for the most part, I think people enjoy living that way. It takes a lot of the thinking out of it.
I read the New Testament, specifically the gospels and I was struck at their divinity, feeling that humans could not have figured this out on their own. We're just not bright enough.
When I was a drunk, New York was the greatest place in the world. You walk everywhere, everything is open until four in the morning, and people go to New York looking for debauchery.
There are certain songs that if people come up to me and tell me how much that song meant to them, I think, You should have better taste, then, because I don't really like that song.
I'm very close to a lot of people from my time in the band, like our hair and make-up people and the dancers, but you gravitate towards the people that you have stuff in common with.
The worst I think that I ever was, when 'Unforgettable' had come out, and not long after that I was on - I was on my way to my second divorce. And that was a crushing, crushing blow.
It was only cool to have blond hair and be a surfer chick [in Sydney]. I could learn how to surf, but I still looked Italian. It took me a long time to realize that was a good thing.
But as long as you're creating the art you want to create, if people start liking you, you shouldn't have to apologize. You want your stuff to be heard by as many people as possible.
Running in Central Park is my favorite thing to wake up and do. I have my own specific path that I have to run every single time. There's a little bit of OCD involved, but I love it.
Just like everything, even the most fun and creative endeavor requires work to be successful, and I'm so sick of working. I'm a lazy person at heart. I never meant to be a go-getter.
I don't listen to much rap, really. I can rarely listen to a whole record of it, because musically, it's very formulaic, and oftentimes it doesn't have the best hooks on every track.
When I found out I was pregnant, my mother said, 'Don't separate your life, the life that you're going to make with this child, from the things that you are and what you want to do.'
I made a resolution in 2010 to stop drinking Diet Coke, and I haven't had Diet Coke since then. I think it was the best life change I've ever made, because I drank quite a lot of it.
There's even a feature on my website where you can translate messages into codes, so whenever I have any big news it goes out in code first so the diehard fans are the first to know.
I've always been very independent, and I love being able to enjoy different parts of music. It's amazing to be able to hear the sound in your head and instantly make it come to life.
I was inspired to play electric guitar from listening to a lot of Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and B.B. King, and that's always been the kind of music that I gravitate toward.
For me, personally, I think drugs are sacred and should be used for work. That's what I believe in. Drugs have a real shamanistic value. I can handle drugs. I've never had a problem.
John Coltrane, he talks to god. He starts playing his solo, he might play for 14 minutes. For 14 minutes, it seems like he's talking to god, but he always takes a hold of the melody.
I didn't know Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse, but I was affected by both of their deaths because I admired their work so much and mourned their youth and work they would never produce.
It doesn't come naturally to me, being the boss and telling people what I want. I find it very taxing and tiring. I love getting to be way down the line in the decision-making chain.
I find some really cool, unique stuff in vintage shops. The good thing about vintage if that it doesn't quite fit you can customise it, like, make it shorter. The shorter the better!
You can't ask someone who is not making that kind of money to go to the record store and buy an album when someone down the street has the same record with same sound quality for $5.
Other kids could read, other kids could write, other kids could spell, they could do math. I felt like an alien. I felt like an outcast. I felt like, 'What is going to happen to me?'
I started to wear the sunglasses all the time at school, hiding behind them... I'd walk down the hallways, practically hugging the wall, dragging my head against it like I was crazy.
I would love to go to smaller places in the UK such as Manchester and Liverpool and play there. It's much more intimate; you got to get down and gritty, getting closer to the people.
I saw Louis Armstrong perform at Albany State College on Radio Springs Road. He was probably the first famous individual I saw in concert. Unfortunately, I never did get to meet him.
I can't watch my first audition because it makes me too upset. I just think it is really sad. I look at myself and don't recognize myself. I do think fame and fortune changes people.
Women's bodies are amazing; what our bodies can do is incredible, so it's sad that we get distracted - all this stuff about being skinny, be this, be that - they're all distractions.
I care so much about making things that are useful for people to have and listen to, but I don't care so much that I won't do whatever the hell I want. It's just one of those things.
I've done that kind of stuff in records, where you start going back and you want to just redo everything, destroy everything, because you think it all sucks and you can do it better.
In this industry, all the heads of labels are men, but every artist has to prove themselves, regardless of their sex. I have always been very vocal about the women sticking together.
The thing about rock & roll, and the black leather biker jacket - it automatically creates an idea about what that person might be about, about their musical taste or their attitude.
The first thing I will say about looking after your voice is get a pair of in-ear monitors because one of the most common problems singers have is trying to hear themselves on stage.
I can't think of another attitude to have toward an audience than a hopeful and positive one. And if that includes such unfashionable things as sentimentality, well, I can afford it.
My gift and my curse is that I really want to be loved. What drives me to make music is love - whether it's shallow or deep or whatever. I want to do things that make people love me.
I love Sell Out, I think it's great. I love the jingles. The whole thing as an album is a wonderful piece of work. The cover. Everything about it. It's got humor, great songs, irony.
I admire them for making their way up and opening new opportunities for other Latin newcomers. Latinos have come a long way and the roles and opportunities just seem to be improving.
Around 2008 was a really special time culturally. There were a lot of cool things going on in music, in fashion, politically. It was a really hopeful time and a really creative time.
Music is emotional. Your job is to make people feel something. The best way to do that is to sing and speak from something they've personally been through. That's where I write from.
In the '60s, my father, Wally Amos, had been a talent agent and a personal manager before taking a major career detour in 1975, when he opened a store selling chocolate chip cookies.
Cynicism is tough. A cynic's point of view is really pitiful. I derive pleasure out of a lot of things in life. As long as I'm fairly healthy, it's hard to stay dismal for very long.
We're all struggling to get out of the past. We see something that reminds us of something, and then we bring our baggage into the present. Then we project it onto people constantly.
As you get out and try to do things, you always find that in order to make an idea a reality, it goes through some changes. It doesn't always come out exactly like you envisioned it.
I think it's important to be sincere. And I could be the most sincere just staying in [my] mother language actually. And that's the reason why I stay composing and writing in French.
I never, ever saw myself as glam because I didn't wear makeup... my image is a plain leather jumpsuit, which is not glam at all. I've always seen myself as rock n' roll and not glam.
Music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment.
I try to keep my ear to the streets without sacrificing who I am as an artist. If a song needs a drum machine I'll use a drum machine. If it needs a drummer, I'll use a real drummer.
If I see a movie star in the department store buying something, I'll kind of sidle up and see what they're saying, what they look like, how they sound. That's an invasion of privacy.