Quotes About Influence

Iris Murdoch did influence my early novels very much, and influence is never entirely good.

While writing 'Bhavesh,' I pretty much chewed up every single graphic novel I could get my hands on, so all the way from the entire 'Batman' series, Frank Miller's 'Batman,' Ed Brubaker's 'Batman,' Scott Snyder's 'Batman,' all the way through 'Daredevil' to '100 Bullets,' through so many other graphic novels.

I have written every one of my novels to convince somebody of something.

I read all of Ayn Rand's novels when I was 17.

I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.

I don't read novels, but my semiotics study influenced everything about the way I read and edit and write.

The truly great books are always novels: 'Anna Karenina,' 'The Brothers Karamazov,' 'The Magic Mountain.' Just as with 'Shahnameh,' I browse these books from time to time to remember how a great book works on us or to teach my students at Columbia University.

I like Jaykae. He's a great artist, and I absolutely love Dr. Dre's album and a bit of Calvin Harris now and then.

My story about becoming an actor is a completely non-romantic one. I became an actor because my parents were actors, and it seemed like a very... I knew I was going to act all my life, but I didn't know that I was going to be a professional actor. I thought I was just going to work as an actor every now and then.

I get great satisfaction nowadays when people come up and say 'I used to hate you when I was little' or 'you used to make me mad' - well that was the desired effect.

Everything is social media nowadays, everything is sports and entertainment.

So many kids nowadays, it's almost like they go through this Disney training where they're taught to be cute and play it up for the camera, and they're trying to get laughs.

Demons manifest themselves in people in different ways. For instance, out of nowhere, somebody can become very angry for no reason. That's not just an emotion. That's a demon.

A man is nowhere without money.

If I'd had a charisma-ectomy in the beginning, XP would have gone nowhere.

Growing up in the middle of nowhere, there was a lot of twangy music around, but it didn't really connect with me then.

It's Russia some people would like to get rid of. They are still afraid of our nuclear deterrent. We have our own foreign policy whether they like it or not.

My number one idol will always be Rihanna. She has everything I want to be.

Mel will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a Number.

If someone does something in an entertainment/pop ambience, that person becomes someone who has an impact on the conduct and attitude of a huge number of people who peripherally come in contact with them.

'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is my number one biggest influence artistically in every way.

I'm a huge Coppola fan. But more of 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Conversation.' 'The Godfather' for me is, like, number three or four on the list.

It does you no good to see the number two or number three man in the corporation-you have to get through to number one.

No one can fail to see that the power of the Church among large numbers in many communities is today diminishing, or has already ceased.