Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
'RuPaul's Drag Race' is a show about love, art, passion, acceptance, and the quest for finding America's next drag superstar. No show on the telly box has more grit than these queens.
You listen to a song by Nicky Jam, and you don't think about reggaeton; you just think, 'I like that song.' I got old people listening to my music, young people listening to my music.
I tried several times to get the song right. The tune and the chords that I started with, there really wasn't anywhere else it could go. I stopped fighting it and let it take me away.
Sometimes artists are control freaks and it's certainly important to have a vision, but within that vision you need to allow freedom and personality- or you light as well hire robots.
The good and bad are all tangled up together. American popular music is loved around the world because of its African rhythm. But that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for slavery.
Everyone has a black guy inside them. Mine is a Cuban sonero who is 80-something years old and sings better than I do. His name is Medoro Madera. Medoro has been recording since 1997.
I think that good writing is based on good reading. Maybe it's not about writing today, maybe it's about reading today. Maybe it's about finding the sort of book you would never read.
I think that the best rock n' roll is about the spirit of being young, the feeling of being 16 and getting crazy with your friends and going out to a show and just that whole feeling.
I remember my sister and I - my big sister would get up on her chair in the kitchen and sing Mary Wells' "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One." It was 1966, and I was 10 years old.
From childhood, I have been more of a musician than a singer. People close to me know how much effort I put into practising. Even when I am travelling, I have my tanpura on my iPhone.
I can definitely tell when mum has got money because then she likes to go shopping to spend it, whereas dad is steadier and avoids splurges. I like to think I've inherited both sides.
Love can sort of rebound and regrow and reinvent itself around a lot of things, but when somebody can't forgive themself for something, I think love sort of withers in that situation.
No, there will come a time where I'm not gonna do this anymore. I mean, there will come a time, definitely, where I'll turn into Elvis - I'm gonna be fat and fishin', I guarantee you.
Anyone who takes the craft of songwriting seriously I radiate towards. Spending time with Daryl Hall was a dream come true. I picked his brain a lot because Hall And Oats is timeless.
I am grateful for all the military families that I've met. I wanted to spread hope and cheer to all; little did I know that they would be the ones to change my life the way they have!
I'd like to be a geneticist to be honest, but there are limits to what I can do now. For my dream to come true I'd have to be 20 years old again, heading off to a blue chip university.
I think one of the greatest gifts you can give to someone is just access to the possibility of freedom that you don't have to be totally depressed and enslaved by your own environment.
I firmly believe in music being as free as possible. Unlocked. Shared and spread. In order for artists to survive and create, their audiences need to step up and directly support them.
I remember seeing 'Snow White' and saying to my mother, 'Will there ever be a Chocolate Brown?' She said 'Probably. Why not?' I just never thought the first black princess would be me.
Maybe I'll work for a label someday, write some fiction, nonfiction. Someday I'd like to go back to school and get my teaching degree. I want to be a grandpa. I want to have more kids.
I'm the kind of person who can hear that stuff. If you sing along to the radio and you're not going to sing unison with the melody, but find the harmony, I find that pretty easy to do.
I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.
I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter.
When you start dating another country star, the first question is, 'When are y'all gonna do a duet?' And what sucks about that is people expect you to do it whether you want to or not.
You don't think it was because a white man wrote it, a black man wrote it, a green man wrote it. What - doesn't make a difference! Doesn't make a difference. I think he did a good job.
Scary in the idea it could be a little overwhelming to have 70 or 100 clowns in a public space. Intriguing in that it could be something interesting. I'm up for any kind of public art.
When I was in high school, I ran hurdles, but I was really short, so I'd barely clear them. I was pretty quick, but I had little legs, so I had to take 50 steps in between each hurdle.
If you had told me at 45 years old that I would have to go on tour to get rest, I would've said, 'That's not how it works.' But nothing can be more gratifying. I'm a very hands-on dad.
We need to pray and read the Bible every day, and regardless of whatever else happens to you, that tends to keep you close to Him, because you are constantly in touch through His Word.
For me, it's more about the musicianship - focusing on the guitar, playing with my band, rather than just going out and doing what anyone my age can do with backup dancers and a track.
Some people will totally get restless, since you can make demos pretty easy. It's not unreasonable for someone to say, "All right, can you just record this and go home and work on it?"
I think an artist's true worth comes through an inter-generational thing - when you go beyond your own time, and start influencing people in a greater way than just what surrounds you.
An America we can be proud of, rather than an America to be embarrassed of. You know it's a sign, when you see American backpackers traveling abroad with Canadian flags on their packs!
I was never considered cool throughout my teens: a very important time to be accepted by someone, especially your peers. Yes, I had all the screaming women, but the guys hated my guts.
I was a wallflower when I was younger, and at a young age, I was too embarrassed. So I didn't start dancing until around 20, and obviously when you're in a boy band, you kinda have to.
It's not just self defense, it's about...self control, body discipline, and mind discipline...and breath techniques. It involves yoga. It involves meditation. It's an art, not a sport.
I don't think you should rely on medicine. I think you should rely upon herbal doctors, acupuncture, and doctors outside the medical world, with different kinds and forms of treatment.
This may sound funny, but I feel my most beautiful when I'm clean, fresh out of the bath. I don't have to be dressed up. I could be in comfy clothes at home hanging out with my family.
Song-writing is therapy for me. I'm a very moody person, very difficult to live with. There's a lot going on and a lot of contradictions. My life is always one step away from disaster.
I'll tell you, my dad played and sang, and it didn't take me long to figure out that playing a guitar was a whole lot better than getting ahold of a hoe handle or chopping cotton, man.
I think there's a lot that the larger society could have been taught or can be taught, but I'm not sure - given how unyielding the larger society has been - that much has been learned.
The reasons I never set out to do a talk show is they're formulaic. People come out, tell jokes and read questions. But that's not what I do, and we built the show around my skill set.
When I started reciting my own poems in public, I worried that it would seem too theatrical, but now I find recitation very natural, because it allows me to address audiences directly.
Since I left Chicago, I'm a lone wolf. I put on the record player and sit and try to play on the guitar. I've got five guitars here and can't play them, but I'm always whompin' around.
I got involved because I wanted to help inspire more people to get off their butts and register and vote - not just in this election, but in every other election from now on, you know?
I write in the weirdest places. I wrote 'Girl on the Coast' in my car with the kids in the back and Eric driving. I just wrote the whole thing on my phone. I just typed out the lyrics.
I've seen so many people in this business that made a fortune. They get old and broke and can't make any money. I tell you something... no one's going to play a benefit for Jimmy Dean.
I was hurt so deep that I made up my mind never to hurt anybody else, no matter what. I never made jokes about anybody's big ears, their stut-terin', or about them bein' off their nut.
I have a nice boat that I got a couple of years ago that's a Skeeter brand that's 20-foot, center-console. I have it set up for saltwater and for fresh water, so it's been a nice boat.
I don't fake my music. If I want to be known for anything it's for creating honest music. Noting is fake or will ever be fake about the lyrics and pain in my music. My music I live it.