Quotes About Influence

For a while, I was working on transcribing rap lyrics and then converting them into rhythmic patterns on the piano. And so in my mind, when I was taking a solo, I would be saying the lyrics and trying to play actual notes to their rhythms. Now, the influence just comes in and out in my playing.

I really value what Closed Sessions is doing to build the Chicago music scene and am excited to partner with them for my first solo project.

Between 1963 and 1975, I worked very little. The Beatles had come to New York and changed music - all the solo singers were out of work.

I love Lauryn Hill when she first came out with her solo project because it felt like she just knew what she was doing.

I was brought up on listening to 78 rpm records from crooners to opera singers to solo piano players.

When I meet people, a lot of people know me from different things whether it be when I was in the group or my solo stuff or 'You Got Served' or movies, it's really interesting that that film is a part of history. That's nuts.

Hip-hop and jazz have always been intertwined. Even the G-funk thing. You listen to 'The Chronic,' there's flute solos and everything. It's always been there.

A lasting solution to this problem will have an exceptionally positive influence foremost on the peoples of Palestine and Israel, as well as on the region and the international community.

On Hillary Clinton's side, she believes she's unaccountable to the American people. She favors these old ideas about government, these - these centralized, top down solutions from Washington that keep insiders in the know and give them influence, but regular Americans have no voice.

When I think about developing solutions, I think about how we can use technology to make a difference.

Political people don't solve stuff - not really. Political people are like guys in pop music.

If you took money out of politics, you'd solve 80 percent of all the problems.

I've solved my phone addiction by deleting all the apps I was addicted to - email, browser - and getting my wife to add parental controls, to limit access even further.

It's true that America can't solve every problem, but I don't know of any major problem in the world that can be solved without us.

I've met some incredible people who I really admire.

Certain things you learn through exposure. It's really the elements which make up any artist. You really learn by example. You learn by influence. And some people have a huge impact on you, and that's how you become the artist you are.

We are all advertising, all of the time. If you want to sell your car, what do you do? You clean and polish it and make it the best you can. Some people bake bread when they are trying to sell their house because the smell adds a friendly feeling. Even the priest, with all his or her fervour, is advertising God. Everybody is selling.

I did a show called 'Profit' a while back, and I based some of the work on some people that were in office at the time.

If in my fight I can encourage even some people to understand and to abandon policies they now so blindly follow, I shall not regret any punishment I may incur.

As an artist, I feel so fortunate to be able to learn from all these great musicians that came before me, when some people have nobody that came before them.

I never thought I'd be a role model but I think to some people I am or have been.

A lot of people I guess, well, some people change when they get in spotlights and everything, but you can take the girl out of Mississippi, but you can't take Mississippi out the girl!

Some people are that - more than a parent, more than a role model, more than anything less than a religion.

Everybody's looking for the niche to make the difference. Some people think they see the mother lode in the beautiful people, especially the vote of the beautiful women.