Quotes About Inspiration

As far as the creative process goes, I always make sure that anything that gets discussed or talked about in the record is true to form. I make it a point not to sing anything that I haven't felt or gone through.

Before they did all those shows on Jackson Pollock, I loved the way he formulated his paintings. I loved Basquiat - I was into the whole Beat generation, Kerouac, etc., and all those artists talked about that and Kerouac, so I just got in the middle of being spontaneous.

When my mother talked about her brother, there was this light in her eyes. I thought, 'This is the basis of a novel.'

I'm not really gonna stop. We've got so much stuff to do, so many songs we talked about, so many things to record.

When I made '101 Reykjavik,' people talked about 'Almodovar on ice.' When I made 'The Sea,' people referenced Bergman.

For inspiration, we still demand the rhetorical high notes. Clinton has hit them before, in her speech in Beijing as first lady when she said, 'Women's rights are human rights,' and in her 2008 concession speech, when she talked about the '18 million cracks' in the glass ceiling.

My dad showed me a football and would throw it up and have my dog - a German Shepherd - chase me around when I went after the ball. I caught it because I was scared of that dog. The next year, my dad talked to the commissioner of a local league and convinced him to let me play as a first grader with third graders.

My Girl Scout leader. She told me if I listened more and talked less, I could grow up to be a good writer. I thought that was interesting advice at age 12.

My grandfather talked about James Dean; they were both very much into method acting.

There's a Kiss through-line to a lot of the music that came out of Seattle, and it hasn't been talked about a lot.

When I saw Justin in 'The Social Network', I became deeply obsessed with the desire to work with him and reached out to Justin. When we met, we talked about a couple of things I was working on that did not come to fruition, but it gave us a meeting.

I never dreamt of the Olympics growing up. It's not something that I watched on TV; it's not something my parents ever talked about.

When I sat down with Under Armour, one of the first things we talked about was how this can be bigger than just shoes, bigger than just basketball.

I listen to music very intensely as well: When I listen to an artist I really love, I feel like I know them. I feel like I understand what they're thinking about, even though I've never met them or talked to them.

I've shown, for twenty-plus years, with a legacy that will be talked about way after I'm gone, that I am different.

I always wanted to start a school. I talked about it in college - but I didn't do anything about it.

Muhammad Ali is my hero. Yes, he was the best boxer in the world, but he also put himself on the line. He talked when black Americans had to be quiet.

What makes me laugh is hearing the stuff about my son or the stuff about my mom. I was a big fan of Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy; they talked a lot about their moms and their kids. Those are the things that inspired me to do stand-up.

Within my immediate creative community, I would say gender is something that I've always been interested in and always talked about.

My dad really wanted to be in the Hall Of Fame, and it was something we talked about a lot.

David Rouse, a goalkeeping scout for Manchester City, came over for maybe a week in October. He was an awesome guy. He showed me what kind of club they were like. We talked about Manchester City. He watched me and watched a game.

God, in a dream, talked to me, and he gave me that name. I'm like, 'you know what God? That is a funny name! I might need to run with it!' And ever since then, I've been calling myself Swaggy P. It's a household name.

Personally I've always given people make-up advice and talked about beauty products because that's what I'm passionate about.

The band that made me want to be a musician in the first place was the Beatles. And I think John Lennon used to say something like, 'We're just a singing group,' when he talked about the band. So that's what I say about Mr. Big - we're a singing group!