Quotes About Influence

I'm constantly trying to mine the DNA of John Constantine and stay true to that character in the comic books.

I would say my biggest mentor has been my father because he always has been. Actually both of my parents have always been ones to encourage me to be myself and stay true to myself and not fall into what other people want me to do.

No, I'll stay Ice-T. This is what got me here, I'm always going to stay true to that. If it weren't for hip-hop I wouldn't be doing all these other things.

Both my parents were high school teachers, and they were beloved high school teachers, so I constantly meet people through my dad's life where they'd be like, 'Your dad changed my life. He's the reason I became a lawyer. He's the reason I started writing. He's the only reason I stayed in school.'

If the 'Chappelle's Show' had stayed on, I seriously doubt I would have developed this fast as a stand-up comedian. I probably would never have taken stand-up comedy really seriously.

I'm a big guy, but I play with a guard mentality. I got that from my dad, and it's always stayed with me.

A lot of stuff people said to me when I was younger subconsciously stayed with me and became my biggest insecurities.

The first musical sound I ever heard was from a banjo. My father played, and I was an infant in a crib, and something just stayed with me from those early days.

Like many Catholics, I was very affected by the personality of Jesus and that impression, pious as it was, has stayed with me.

I went to Duke, and I stayed at Duke all four years because I wanted as many years under Coach K's tutelage as I could get. I think every year you get with him, the more it's going help you for basketball and life. So I wanted to play for him as long as I could.

I'm from the same area as Gucci Mane. I stayed off Bouldercrest road. I stayed off Glenwood.

The basis of everything that I plugged into when I was younger was blues, and it always stayed with me.

I wish that the adults who are 'in power' cared more about what their children read. Books are incredibly powerful when we are young - the books I read as a child have stayed with me my entire life - and yet, the people who write about books, for the most part, completely ignore children's literature.

My fear is that, had I stayed in Jersey, I would have become Snooki because I'm just a bottle of hair dye away.

We always stayed true to what the Ramones are.

I got caught up in doing records for other artists. I just stayed behind the scenes, and time just kinda passed.

For better or worse, we have evolved for sure, but we've also maintained a certain core about who we are, which is we were raised on late '50s and early '60s rock n' roll and R&B, and you can always hear that throughout. And that's just always been who we were. As much as we've evolved, that's stayed the same.

I take inspiration from books, movies, television, music - it all goes in the hopper. Depending on the project, I'm drawing from this or that piece of art that has stayed with me. Toni Morrison, George Romero, Sonic Youth - they are all in there.

John's legacy? His bravery. When he had the power, he used it. He really wanted peace on Earth, and John's lyrics, well, that's the brave poetry of the '60s. If he had stayed with us, he could have done so much more.

For me, coming up, the first I had ever heard of basketball? It was from my mom. She was a really good player back in her day, and even played college ball at Kentucky State. And then she went on to become a coach and an AD after that - so she always stayed real close to the game, and kept it a part of her life.

I learned to love bluegrass, but my first love stayed hard country.

Just by making a decision to stay out of politics, you are making the decision to allow others to shape politics and exert power over you. And if you are alienated from the current political system, then just by staying out of it, if you do nothing to change it, you simply entrench it.

I feel like Prince's artistry inspired me as far as staying true to myself and my artistry and what is important to me in my life and applying, you know, all the things that I ever been through into my music, the same way he kinda did in 'Purple Rain.'

One always hopes that you're going to have influence and staying power, but you never know.