Quotes About Inspiration

He taught me literature, and he actually taught me how to read. He was my personal mentor.

I call him 'Daddy Coach.' He's taught me everything that he's known so I'm able to do what I'm able to do.

My mother was kind and forgiving and would take in all the waifs and strays in our neighbourhood; we always compared her to Mother Teresa. She taught me a lot.

Long before I started to write in earnest, Lorrie Moore taught me you could have a woman narrator who was funny and complex and even wrongheaded. She opened up a lot of space that me and a million other women rushed into.

Mentors don't have to be the Daymond Johns or the Mark Cubans. A person running a successful bodega or a tax firm in your community for the last 20 years, that person is working just as much as the individual who's running General Mills.

Maybe I should get back to the music-writing phase and write one on tax reform.

'Taxi' made a big difference because it got me into comedy.

Songs don't just suddenly arrive like a taxi you have to work on them and you have to put a lot of time and energy and self discipline into creating that kind of thing.

I saw 'Taxi Driver,' and 'Taxi Driver' kind of saved my life. The scene where Robert De Niro is looking at himself in the mirror saying, 'You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Who the hell else are you talkin' to?' That's the scene that changed my life by changing my attitude about acting.

Some of our favorite films are obviously not written by the person who directed it. And yet a 'Taxi Driver,' or some Nicholas Ray movie, like 'In a Lonely Place,' seems so personal or obsessive or whatever.

We were in love with 'Mean Streets' and 'Taxi Driver.' We had no idea why nothing remotely like that was done in Denmark.

'Taxi Driver' wasn't autobiographical in terms of the actual events, but I did draw on my own mental state.

Looking back at 'Taxi Driver' or, really, any of the Martin Scorsese films, he really filmed New York City in a way that I saw New York City.

My idol when I was a kid was Elizabeth Taylor.

Taylor Goldsmith and I hit it off big time, and so we started writing some songs together.

When someone is themselves through their music, it's soul music. James Taylor is soul music to me 'cause it's just him talking about him. It doesn't have anything to do with black or growing up in the church; it's where it comes from. It's just soul music.

Lupe Velez was way before me; Dolores Del Rio was way before me, so I had no one. So the only one I could think of that I identified with was this gorgeous creature named Elizabeth Taylor, so she became my role model.

If I could play drums like Patrick Carney or Taylor Hawkins, I'd be a really happy person.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

Someone who gave me a lot of confidence was my friend Martin Taylor, he's the most famous man in Bolton. He is a pianist and used to play in one of the local pubs. He would sing everything from classical to rock to pop. He was amazing.

I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15. I think what mainly sparked my interest was just the fact that I grew up listening to Cheryl King, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and was just always inspired by that sort of organic art, and organic songs and just very natural songwriting that came out of some of those artists.

The records that I grew up listening to had feel, and the drummers that inspired me - like Stewart Copeland, Neil Peart, Phil Collins and Roger Taylor - all had their own voice and individual style.

If I try to be Sean McVay, I'm going to fail, to be quite honest with you. We're different people. I've learned a lot from him, but I'm going to be Zac Taylor and do the best I can my way.

I would like to do a duet with Taylor Hanson, because I have loved Hanson since I was 8.