Quotes About Influence

You know, the funny thing was that I grew up listening to, like Whitney Houston and Cece Winans, and a lot of American singers.

There's lots of singers that I love; I don't know if I used any of them as role models. Maybe I would have been a better singer when I started if I had.

I grew up a huge Roy Orbison fan. He had such a crazy range. And I grew up listening to old jazz, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone. I remember trying to imitate female jazz singers because I had a higher range.

Singers like Gladys Knight are mostly responsible for how I learned to sing.

I'm a mad fan of American guitarist Ry Cooder and he made a record using Mexican musicians, but with American soul singers doing the backing. It opened my eyes to the fact that the Mexicans played very differently.

Marty Robbins was one of the first singers that really hit me hard.

That's the best way to feed the human mind. That's how Bob Marley did it. He never put it in your face. After you got the groove, you were just singing the hooks, because you thought it was cool.

Jaan would send me songs and ask me what I thought about his singing. I have always encouraged him, and I always will. He asked me to call a few industry people who I know. I called Mukesh Bhattji, Ramesh Tauraniji and a few others, and Jaan went to meet them, but now it's up to them if they want to give him work.

It was my love for the guitar that first got me into music and singing. Growing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically.

I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.

Chinmaya Mission has been a very strong part of my life since childhood. I have been associated with Chinmaya Mission since primary school days, where I was part of group singing and bhajans in the Bal Vihar classes.

My father was very interested in music, and when he and his brothers were young, they had a singing group that used to open for Sam Cooke. There was always music in our house, but there wasn't much art around.

I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

I fell in love with the legend of Paul Robeson as a kid. My dad would tell me all these amazing stories about his life and, bizarrely, ended up singing to Robeson on his deathbed.

'Nothin' on You' by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I'd been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.

My father started me singing in church.

I was clearly brought into the whole thing about acting by my mother. She loved the theater. She had a very pleasant singing voice, which she used to sing for her ladies' club.

Every single player matters. Every single player can change the course of the game.

Every single minute matters, every single child matters, every single childhood matters.

In the public realm, secularism should not concede a single inch to religious intrusions.

Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.

More and more, when I single out the person out who inspired me most, I go back to my grandfather.

Some movies bring out the creativity in you. Every single audience member can become creative in the face of a particular movie. If you happen to like my films, it's because my films provide a bed for you on which you can find your creativity. The Hollywood movies do not provide that for you.

Marilyn Monroe Productions was the first female-owned production company in Hollywood. She paved the way for women in Hollywood, and every single woman owes something to her for that, whether they agree with her image or not.