Quotes About Influence

Paul Giamatti is truly one of my biggest inspirations, and even more so now that I've gotten to work with him. Every single thing he does, he completely transforms into it. When I watch a film with Paul in it, I'm not like, 'Oh, there's Paul.' I'm completely into whatever character he's in, and I'm not thinking about him as an actor.

Nobody has single-handedly done more for the U.S. than me.

Oh, I think Janie Bryant is a genius. I mean, I think she changed menswear almost single-handedly with what she did on 'Mad Men.'

On TV, only a handful of people can move the meter so to speak - only a handful of personalities can move ratings. LeBron seems to single-handedly affect those ratings.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer's block.

I'm often being singled out because of who my significant other is. That's nice when his approval rating is 70 percent, not so nice when it's not.

I'm a Punjabi and I grew up listening to songs like 'Latthe di Chaddar,' one of my first singles.

I had T-Pain on one of my singles before anyone really knew of him. I was the first one to put that to life of having T-Pain on the hook.

I have been fortunate enough to record several singles and a whole album with Chet Atkins.

Usually I get inspired by singles and not artists, but I love Macklemore.

I like the way Billy Idol sings. Mommy turned me on to him.

Everybody who sings with me has to sing ranchero. Roberto Carlos had to sing ranchero, Vikki Carr had to record ranchero. Celia Cruz came in with a mariachi.

I saw 'Mahogany' and 'Lady Sings the Blues' when I was little and thought, 'That's what I want to do.'

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.

When Drake sings, it makes everybody feel like they can sing. Not saying he's a bad singer - he's a good singer - but it just makes everybody feel like, 'If Drake can sing, I can sing, too.'

Aretha Franklin holds a significant place in the collective heart of America. She's a singular example of what we represent at our best.

Every argument is incapable of helping unless it is singular and addressed to a single person. Therefore, one who discourses in any other way presumably does so from love of reputation.

Shirley Jackson enjoyed notoriety and commercial success within her lifetime, and yet it still hardly seems like enough for a writer so singular. When I meet readers and other writers of my generation, I find that mentioning her is like uttering a holy name.

I have run across characters in my political career that have that singular focus of being someone, being in a position of power.

In everything I do, my principal inspiration is the 1996 Belle & Sebastian album 'If You're Feeling Sinister.'

I was always very aware of drummers. My oldest brother Henry was a drummer, and he drummed on everything in the house from the kitchen sink to stovepipes. He was the first drummer in the Gil Evans Orchestra, so you've got to know how great he was.

With a sinking feeling, I have come to a horrible conclusion: I am addicted to Donald Trump.

Sinn Fein is the fastest growing party on the island of Ireland.

A lot of 'Blackheart' was me, literally in a dark room, confessing my sins; Poe was the influence for that album. But that melancholy has a hopefulness - in every Poe story, there is always a moral at the end.