Quotes About Authenticity

I don't just want my books to be about the '30s and '40s. I want them to read as if they had been written then. I think of them as '40s novels, written in the conservative narrative past.

There are people who say they want to write novels. They think, 'I'll learn my craft on the romance novel.' If you don't love the genre, it's going to show, and it's not going to be a good book.

I have no desire to write historical anything or futuristic anything - I want to find a way to get at the essence of what it's like to be alive now. The reason why great novels from centuries ago are still great is because that's what they were doing; it's like a message from another culture.

I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.

When writing songs, especially if they're kinda semi-true to you, a lot of people hide behind whatever their idea of themselves is in the record, and every now and then, you might make a song that exposes something a little too much about you, and there's a part that doesn't want yourself to be exposed.

Nowadays, I could not care less about making other people like me. I'm a good person, I don't need to do that anymore.

That's what happens nowadays with people working on computers. They can so easily fix things with their mouse and take out all the, 'Oh, somebody coughed in the background; we need to take that out' - or somebody hit a bad note. Those are all the best moments.

Most of the people nowadays send their things by internet. But I cannot work that way. I like to do it myself.

I feel like when I listen to music nowadays, it's a lot of commands. It's a lot of demands. Do this dance, or feel like this. It's not like, 'how do you feel?'

You can only be yourself, and it sounds cheesy, but when it comes to filmmaking, there's really nowhere to hide.

In modern life, we hide behind ourselves. In Shakespeare, there's nowhere left to hide. It's life, larger than life, and every actor has to raise their game to get there.

Actors are very demanding because they have nowhere to hide. If I write a scene, it doesn't turn out very well, I don't ever have to show it to anyone; when you turn the camera on, or when you walk on stage, they have to feel like what's happening is real.

If I was just a country singer, I wouldn't be near as cool and I wouldn't have nowhere near as cool of a fan base.

It can't just be about being sexy. It has to have all the emotions involved, I think, on the album and in the live show. Because if you do all sex, you lose all of the other beautiful things that should be a part of it... And just being sexy will get you nowhere.

If you're on a film set for 48 weeks of the year, you're nowhere near reality. You can't emote like a human being.

Compromises lead you nowhere. You can't be happy doing something you don't believe in.

We don't mind if people think we've come from nowhere. Because once they've become fans, they'll delve deeper in and will be surprised to find we've been around awhile and that we've had a lot of experience doing this.

Flopping shouldn't get you nowhere.

I never played for numbers.

People are confusing me with a good actor when I'm just a good mimic. When someone asks me to play a nun from the fifteenth century, you'll see what I mean.

If I write a book, it has to be so awesome. It has to be next level, to prove mysel. Just like if you are an athlete and you want to rap, you better bring the bars. Don't come in with nursery rhymes.

My artistic spirit is not nurtured by blogospheres.

The fact that we were encouraged to follow our conscience and not to follow the crowds - that's something I really miss. On the other hand, there were things that drove me nuts in the '60s. There was an aspect of the hippie movement that everyone is an artist, which is lethal.

Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana - listen, if you have a chance to go there, it's better than Disney World, because it's all real.