Quotes About Inspiration

'MMMBop' took about a year to actually get completed. The chorus idea had really been around for a long time, and then we built the song around it.

I feel a responsibility to continue creating complex roles for black women, especially young black women.

A lot of people ask me, 'Are you born a writer?' And I don't think it's necessarily true. I just think what you either have or you don't is this ability to see something that's complex and worth talking about.

As a kid, I didn't know much about Prince - who he was and all the complexities of his personality - but I could still feel very close to him when I listened to his music.

All it takes is one guy to change a locker room. To change the complexity or nature of an atmosphere.

It's definitely complicated, but it's all about the music. When people focus on other things, I think that's when it gets lost, and I would just rather focus on the music of it all.

You find a lot of ideas from my shows in adverts now. I find it a compliment.

It's the ultimate compliment to be imitated or at least be somebody's influence, for sure.

I see it as a compliment to be compared to someone like Sharapova who has won five Slams. She's a great champion. I see it in a positive light. But also I'm my own person. I don't want to be the next someone else. I want to be the first of me.

It's such a huge honor and compliment when someone tells me I'm their hero... but, why me?

When things come back and we're in some small way cast as the originators of a movement, we don't take it as much as a compliment as some people may consider it.

My private joke about 'Luke Cage' is that it's a bulletproof version of 'Lemonade,' and that, essentially, it's a concept album that has a video component.

I've been drawn to sports stories that have an emotional component to it. I'm happy to get a chance to tell a few.

There's a great social component to being a writer, to being an artist.

I always compose on the harmonium.

If you compose a song from your soul, it will come out well.

When you compose, it's like writing. You're like a writer. You just think all the time.

I would love to compose for an entire film because it will be a different experience.

I can write songs, I've had songs in movies, but I can't compose film scores, you know?

I find it very difficult to compose when I'm not playing.

Usually I go to the studio to write lyrics and compose music. I try to be a dad as much as possible at home.

The only way for me to compose is intensively. To pick at it over a long period doesn't seem to work.

When I compose for any film, I always work with the story in mind.

When I compose an album, I don't think about how to adapt it on stage.