Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I read books all the time, I'm always reading. I'm not like somebody that reads really fast or a lot or anything, but I always have a book that I'm reading.
Barry and I were in the middle of building a house, and I was in the midst of having a nervous breakdown, because that's what you do when you build a house.
Would you believe that Sammy Davis, Jr. taught me how to sing a ballad? 'You can be in an arena,' he said, 'and you should be able to hold their attention.'
I pick up my guitar and play. Something might come, and then the pen comes out. Then an edit, until something comes out that you're actually satisfied with.
Any woman that you're in love with or that loves you is going to command a certain amount of, you know, energy. It's actually easier to focus, in some ways.
To its credit, hip-hop is my favorite genre, to this day, and it's hard not to be influenced by the culture and by the movement of it and by the soul of it.
A Chanel bag will retain its value if you want to sell it to a vintage shop. I've got Chanel bags from the 1980s and they have that fashion heritage aspect.
Annie Lalley is one of the funniest and most likable personalities you'll ever see on stage --which makes the depth of her songwriting all the more striking
You play the one song that people want to hear the most every night, and for every audience that's a special thing. And usually that translates back to you.
Nobody really wanted to do that one European tour. For one, it was budgeted to lose money. They would've made something, but I would've lost a lot of money.
I think that when people download the record they're kind of missing out on part of the experience, because it's really meant to be an immersive experience.
The fans who know us, and me in particular, know the type of people we are. I like the finer things. We've gone through our McDonald's and Burger King phase.
I love hooks, but getting radio airplay has never been a concern to me while I'm writing. That would be a very stifling and imprisoning way of writing music.
No one comes unless they're drawn by the voice of desire that leads em along, to the redemption of what went wrong by the blood that covers the Innocent One.
Shakespeare's frequent horseback journeys from London to Stratford, and from Stratford to London, must have made him familiar with the county of Oxfordshire.
Last time I was sober, man I felt bad, Worst hangover that I ever had. It took six hamburgers, Scotch all night, Nicotine for breakfast just to put me right.
The manifestation of the disease of fear is anger, hate, sadness, envy, and hypocrisy; the result of the disease is all the emotions that make humans suffer.
When people start asking you to do the same thing over and over again, that's when you know you're way too close to something that you don't want to be near.
Me whole life, me whole childhood, me whole growing up, the competitions I went for and the weekends doing the dancing and all the shows, was to be a singer.
I like this town, it's really great. They've put me in The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. This town is about music. It's about the kind of music I like.
I've never been the type of singer that can sing in heels and the gown and all this stuff, because I can't get to where I want to go while I'm in that getup.
I made a quote-unquote 'album' for my senior project of high school. As soon as I finished making it I realized it wasn't the kind of music I wanted to make.
The music starts as being way separate from the lyrics, and I write - I have notebooks that I fill with drawings and just words, and stuff that I've written.
Of course, we wore silly outfits, the pictures were corny, and some people still focus on that. But ABBA wasn't a big intellectual thing. We were a pop group.
I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues.
'Clown' was written when I couldn't find anyone who believed in me as an artist. Maybe those labels will think twice next time a young songwriter comes along.
We live in a connected world now. Some find that frightening. If people are downloading our music, they're listening to it. The internet is like radio for us.
I love writing things down so pretty much every card I send to friends or family is an over enthusiastic essay. I've written some pretty good ones in my time.
I like that I can write my name in Persian, and it's a small unit, like a graphical unit. I feel the same way about my name in English, it's a graphical unit.
I used to look so immature, like a young man without self-confidence. There was one particular light blue, shiny cape outfit I wore that still makes me cringe.
I think that there's always a time to be tongue-in-cheek, and there's always time for humor, but there's a time to be serious and a time for emotional content.
I was worried that I didn't have as many Facebook 'likes' as another musician. You can almost feel like a failure if you aren't building your fame in that way.
I had some great mentors as I was coming up and starting to sing so early - I've been singing since I was four. I had people telling me how to preserve myself.
I try not to force my sound on everybody. I try to yield unto each artist and... I try to just support that sound rather than force a sound that might not fit.
I still love poetic imagery. I love the idea of using surrealist speak to generate lyrical content and I love the way English can be exciting in and of itself.
I think my voice worked out fine, but it was a lot of work for me. And I was very self-conscious about it. I was a bit self-conscious about writing lyrics too.
I'm from a Cuban family, so we're used to talking really loud. You come to a Cuban restaurant anywhere in Miami, and we're practically screaming at each other.
So in every sense, from an independent artist to a major label artist, you just have to have great product, great faith and great people, they all go together.
I've still got both kidneys, but one doesn't work, so I have to be careful not to drink too much, even water, and I have to keep myself as healthy as possible.
I guess it's pretty diverse, but I do have quite a 30-and-older male audience coming out to the shows. I don't know if that's due to me being a female or what.
When you move to the city, you really notice how ugly people can be. And that's something you don't really have to deal with in the country. So I do miss that.
All the best times in music were rebellious. I mean, even like Elvis, people didn't want their daughters paying attention to him. He was considered too sexual!
There's a lot of frustration in trying to get music out when you're the only one who hears it, especially if you have something in your head that's not normal.
Fashion can really give you an identity if you're looking for one and I think the more people that know that, the less identity crises we'll have in the world.
You start to do shows and people come up to me and say, "I wish more people were here, how come more people aren't here?" and that just starts to get a little.
My parents left Iran in 1979 and moved to France and then moved to the U.S. My brother was born in France and I was born in New York, and then we moved to D.C.
The story of Jesus is very fascinating. It still has such a tremendous power, even after 2,000 years! We don't really know if he existed as a historical figure.
There'd be no merit to replicating something, to repeating something. As artists and as musicians, you wanna continue to go in different directions and develop.
I've always admired people with really strong presences and felt that caring about the visual component of what you do is not intrinsically superficial or vain.
When I was small, my parents came back from Tijuana, and my dad bought me a very small acoustic guitar. I loved it. I started making up my own songs right away.