Quotes About Influence

We have an uncanny ability to make birds do what we want them to do. In Blood Simple there's a shot from the bumper of a car and it's going up this road and a huge flock of birds takes off at the perfect moment.

Barack's mother was very important to him, but he spent a great deal of his life living in a different place. So, as all kids do, you always have a fantasy of what perfection would be. And my guess is that Michelle's childhood was his idea of perfection. It allowed him to anchor himself with her and with her family.

She had to play the role of mother and father at the same time, and she did it to perfection. I managed to find a way through because of her. My mother is my biggest inspiration.

People are always saying that Hollywood messes up kids. I'm like, 'No, families mess up kids!' I grew up in Hollywood, and I'm perfectly fine. If my children want to go into the entertainment business, I won't stop them, as long as they're passionate about it.

I know a lot of celebrities who are perfectly happy to put their name to something and then leave it at that because the money is good, but I need to have complete control over how something is going to look if my name is going to be attached to it.

My mother means the world to me. She is my inspiration and motivating force. She has brought me up perfectly and given me the value and ethics that I still proudly believe in and follow.

You can perform all kind of characters but you cannot change what people feel for you.

Music and dance influence my style in a lot of ways. Sometimes I go off to work dressed up like I'm going to hit the stage and perform.

I used to perform with my mother when I was young. This groomed me in a major way.

People know who you are when you've never met them. For them, through interviews and seeing you perform, they feel like they know you and you've never seen them before. It's really different, but it's awesome.

Dad really had little to do with the songs, except to perform them.

I think being directed and mentored by someone as inspirational as Paul Feig not only improves my performance but, as a whole, makes it what it is.

But I can't say that I didn't like John Hammond's performances often better than the originals.

Performance art is really more of a command than an invitation.

Dabbing started with us - QC the label - Jose Guapo, Migos, Skippa Da Flippa, PeeWee Longway. When we performed, we just dabbed, and everyone started running with it. People would do the dance, but no one would say what it was.

My dad is a director/producer and my mom is a dancer; she performed with Alvin Ailey, but I didn't even think about becoming an actress.

We performed at the VMAs, which is crazy because we grew up watching that show and all of our inspirations and idols were there.

Dre is someone I've looked up to since 1985 when he came to my college and performed with The Wrecking Crew.

I used to love 'Ladies Night' by Lil' Kim so much that I performed it in school without really knowing what it was about. I just knew that she was getting at a guy and winning.

'Calamity Jane' inspired me to be a performer. I still want to be her.

I look up to Mick Jagger because he's an amazing performer and he's such an individual. I respect him and admire him eternally.

My parents sent me to a dance class, so it was a road chosen by them, not me. But I enjoyed it so much I knew I would become a performer.

Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than I am, her genius as a performer will have to be taken on faith - and on the always-suspect evidence of film. What will last, if things go well, is her genius as a choreographer, as a woman of the theater.

I think you have a limited amount of impact as an entertainer, performer, or musician.