Quotes About Influence

Yesterday I did not want to be borrowed but this is the typewriter that sits before me and love is where yesterday is at.

The nature of honesty is that if someone has information or knows something about you that you don't want heard, then they have power over you.

Viewers can't expect TV to keep developing unless they make their wants known. And let's face it. The best way to make your wants known in this world is by 'beefing'.

To be influential in our conversations, we must first be aware of two things, (1) what do we want to bring to the conversation and (2) what do we want to bring out in others.

Anyone with an Internet service provider can be a pundit or whatever they want.

I've been too productive for too long, and despite what anybody wants to strip away from me, I am influential. I am.

Ultimate influence is the ability to get the results you want from others while helping them feel genuinely good about themselves.

If I hear a really good song it's like, oh man, I want to write a song that good. But the urge to create mostly comes from nature, weather and I think it just effects me.

I've never been a member of a political party, but people will superimpose on you what they want.

Anybody who wants to rule a group will find that if this group is quarreling among themselves they leave you alone.

The way [Barack Obama] danced, it looked like he could dance in a circle with anyone from Chris Brown to ... well, I don't want to say Michael Jackson, because he's like the king.

Television is a thing that people get very familiar with. They want to hear your voice in their head.

[I am a co - creator], an active agent in this universe who makes things happen. If I want the world to change, I have to change it.

As an actor, you're a color of paint on someone else's palette. But as a director, it's your canvas and you make the painting you want to make.

With wealth, I can do pretty much what I want. But you've got to provide a good example because you have a lot of people that look up to you now.

I turned down five million dollars from a lobbyist who wanted to put up $5m for my campaign, a very strong lobbyist. I said, I don't want your money.

I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.

It's more important what you leave to people on this planet. I want my legacy to exist now, currently, not after I'm gone.

You can't ignore history; you can't escape it even if you want to. You might as well know where you come from, and you might as well know that everything has been done in some shape or form.

Get rid of the friends who want you to spend your whole day doing nothing with them. They're not your friends. They're your enemies.

When you control opinion, as corporate America controls opinion in the United States by owning the media, you can make the masses believe almost anything you want, and guide them as you please.

Teaching writing puts you on the point of a pin in terms of what you want your own writing to be.

What inspires me is my daughter because I want to set a good example for her, as does my wife.

People are saying, "Oh my God, Saudi Arabia has changed." It's a contradiction. Do you want us to lead, or do you want us to play a supporting role?