Quotes About Influence

Let's not pretend we have too much of a democracy here, because we don't.

Sometimes it's funny for me to just pretend I'm a movie character, and think what would you do if this was a movie? Or, what would you do if you were one of your icons?

There are certain people who I worked with, Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, they are figures. And they know this. They don't pretend to be good actors. They were made by the industry into figures.

I was a big fan of Marvin Gaye, and when my parents were at work, I would get in front of the mirror, put my father's clothes on and pretend I was singing Marvin Gaye songs.

People ask what my influences are, and for me, it's not always obvious. One of my biggest inspirations was Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders. That's based on how she just does whatever she wants to do, and I love her attitude about everything. It bleeds over into my way of thinking and comedy.

All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia.

I don't think it is important to be a role model, because if you are a role model, you are pretending to be someone else.

We're in a long line of English people pretending to be Americans and not being as good as Americans.

There are artists in Belgium who try to imitate American artists. But it's like, if you're Belgian pretending to be American, you won't be better than the American because you aren't American. You have to do your own stuff.

There's no point pretending that all of Martha Graham's pieces are equally strong.

It's not like I'm pretending to be Freddie Mercury.

I'm not trying to influence anyone else; I'm not saying, 'Do what I do.' I think it's a little pretentious to say, 'I'm a role model'; I would never say that, and I don't think of myself that way.

Without sounding too pretentious, I was sort of a slave to the narrative. When the narrative cracks in, I have to go where it takes me. I had to go to the Bohemian Grove. It was the obvious end to the book.

I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but I very often like the way Europeans make movies. I think sometimes that don't they care about having to clean certain things.

When I was really little, I loved Whitney Houston. I thought she was the prettiest thing in the world.

Shakespeare said pretty well everything and what he left out, James Joyce, with a judge from meself, put in.

If you really want to be an artist, you search yourself, and you find a lot of it comes from earlier times. I have pretty much built the work around my experiences. When I've moved from one place to another, the work has changed.

My mother's father was Jewish, so she was very conservative. She liked little, pretty music-orchestral-type things.

It's amazing how powerful a piece of work can be and how it can influence people and change. It's pretty interesting.

My parents were pretty cool about letting me listen to whatever I wanted. The only objection might have been playing music too loud.

Music is really important to me; Kurt Cobain is important to me. Hearing Nirvana was pretty life-changing.

I actually had a dream that one of my friends became president, and I was trying to help out with the campaign. It was pretty good.

I feel like I've got a pretty good presence online through Instagram and Facebook. I just keep it simple.

I think we did a pretty good role, linking, being a sounding board really and a driving force, especially from the bottom up. I think that part of this is bottom up as well as top down.