Quotes About Influence

When I was hanging out with Joey Clements in Chicago, I made it a point not to try to emulate him. I wanted basically to create my own character. I didn't want him to think I was hanging out with him solely to use him as research.

It is the solemn obligation of a leader always to be a leader. Even when - perhaps especially when - you don't feel like being a leader.

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.

Growing up, I didn't come from a musical family. Neither of my parents played an instrument, sang out loud, or listened to the radio with frequency. The record collection in the living room was only about 2 feet long - and that included 4 solid inches of Neil Diamond and Herb Alpert.

I have solid decent people around me, and I believe that is all it is, because you will get destroyed if you have people bringing you down.

Deterrence is still fundamentally about influencing an actor's decisions. It is about a solid policy foundation. It is about credible capabilities. It is about what the U.S. and our allies as a whole can bring to bear in both a military and a nonmilitary sense.

The Democratic chairman doesn't need to be a household name. Most people didn't know who Ron Brown was when he was chairman of the Democratic Party, but he put the party in a position where Bill Clinton could come in and he had a solid base to run from.

I do have very solid reggae roots based on the fact that I'm Jamaican, and so that is a part of myself; even if I never do all reggae, it has to come out in some way because that's who I am.

The key to life, in my opinion, is to hang with good people, to have good people around you all the time because you're always going to have some people who will try and lead you in a certain place, and when the pressure comes on, you want real tough, solid people sitting next to you.

I always credited my mother with inspiring me to be a writer because she was such a passionate reader. She read poetry to me as a child. But rather late in life, I've come to appreciate my father, the accountant. He was a solid, organized, get-the-job-done kind of person-and you need that piece of it to be a writer, too.

If I can just be thought of as Omari Hardwick who had a really, really solid career, and whose work is appreciated in its own right, I think that would be a great legacy to leave behind.

When there is a solid base of Italian players, those who come in take their example, and then everyone is working in the same direction.

I've been a huge fan of Kate Winslet, and have watched all her films. She is such a solid actor and I look up to her.

When I was in So Solid Crew, people were always asking if we were associated with the rise in gun crime.

I'm going to have a great career when I'm done. But when people talk about me, I want them to say, 'Yo, not only was Shady McCoy really good, but he was a solid person in the locker room. He helped us out.'

Growing up in Chadds Ford, Pa., I shuttled between studio space in my parents' house and my grandfather's studio just up the hill. It was a solitary childhood, but I loved it.

I would have loved to record with Paul McCartney on some of his early solo recordings, wonderful music. Playing some lovely organ, perhaps. I would have loved to record with John Lennon. He was a dear friend. I had lunch with him just two days before he died.

I think the musicians I play with solo do a certain thing that the musicians we play with with the Indigo Girls don't do. It's just a different thing. And it sort of steers my writing in some ways.

The first CD I ever bought was Gwen Stafani's first solo album. She was the light of my life when I was 8.

Lauren Hill, I always have her solo CD nearby. I have Coldplay, Radiohead, just a mix.

I grew up when the whole Motown thing was huge. The charts in those days were dominated by groups more than solo artists at one point.

Between the Dinosaur Jr. albums and his recent solo albums, 'Several Shades of Why' and 'Heavy Blanket,' J Mascis is emerging as one of the last men from all that '80s indie madness, still writing songs that you want to listen to over and over.

Harrison Ford has always been one of my favorite actors. I grew up with Han Solo and Indiana Jones, and 'Regarding Henry' is one of my favorite movies of all time.

I can't play a solo without thinking about John Jorgenson. I always think about what he would do.