Quotes About Influence

I would like people to recognize in looking at my story that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you. It's not the environment, it's not the other people who were there trying to help you or trying to stop you. It's what you decide to do and how much effort you put behind it.

We're trying to create people that are going to change the world.

For all my life, I've been trying to tell Madam's story and really it's a labor of love just to make sure people know about her and the empowerment she gave to other women.

When somebody gives their testimony or tells their story, the next person can be motivated or inspired by it. That's all I'm trying to do.

Somebody said I sound like an old lady, and I was really insulted by that. I'm trying to sound like Skip James and Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye.

I was in bands, like everyone else, when I was 16, 17; I was a little skater listening to Dead Kennedy's and Steel Pole Bath Tub. It was through early 90s Hip Hop that I found my way to Soul and Funk, and then out the other side into beats.

I wouldn't want to hear Beethoven without beautiful bass, the cellos, the tuba. It's very important. Hip-hop has thunderous bass. And so does Beethoven. If you don't have the bass, it's like being amputated. It's like you have no legs.

It appalls me that the people who decide what Americans will be watching on the tube have never been to the United States. Not the real United States.

I really learned the power of the tube on Sesame Street and how it can influence a very young mind.

My imagination works well because I didn't have a boob tube for a baby-sitter.

I had a Vegemite bun every day from the tuck shop for lunch when I was a kid and I was inspired by that.

My dad told me to tuck my shirt in, look good and respect the game, so that has become embedded in me.

I had some good OGs, from Charles Woodson to Justin Tuck to Antonio Smith.

The things I learned early on from my granddad, the things he instilled in me, are still to this day a huge part and a huge priority of my own life. Even the little stuff like my granddad always telling me to tuck in my shirt at church. It sticks with you.

I spent, as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman's family and heard almost every Tuesday the very best, most earnest and most impressive preacher it has ever been my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect whatever on my mind.

When you're good at controlling your own emotions, you can disguise your true feelings. When you know what others are feeling, you can tug at their heartstrings and motivate them to act against their own best interests.

If Nick Clegg hadn't been sitting around the cabinet table, we wouldn't have had the bedroom tax; we wouldn't have had the rise in tuition fees. We wouldn't have had the mistakes we've seen in economic policy.

It's a rough and tumble game whenever power is involved - people's ambitions, their desires, their competitive spirit will often push them to play outside the rules. It's dramatic, it's interesting, and I think it's something we can all identify with to a degree.

History is the transformation of tumultuous conquerors into silent footnotes.

There are many philanthropists who we admire and have learned a great deal from, including mentors like Bill and Melinda Gates and peers like Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz.

As a young designer in tune with culture, I'm interested in the lifeline of trends.

Cinema, which is influenced by every single part of life, is direct and reaches you immediately. And writing - the best writing is complex ideas communicated concisely. And music - if it's a good tune, make sure people can bloody hear it.

It's like my parents' musical tastes are the mother and father of my music. It's their fault for making me so emotional and in tune with my emotions!

I loved rock and roll when that came in, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, all those great records. So I begged my mom and dad for a guitar, which eventually they did get me for Christmas, but it went out of tune very quickly, and it hurt my fingers.