Quotes About Inspiration

I always wanted to write something illustrated, and the Details strip finally gave me the opportunity.

Well, I'm always working on my comic strip and trying to, you know, keep cranking that out.

But once you strip that down, you realize it's all about a voice, like a Norah Jones - that's inspiring to me.

Charles Schultz is a really interesting case. He wrote that comic strip and drew it himself from beginning to end, and it's a work of genius. It's very simply drawn, but it has some really deep emotions that you don't expect in a silly-looking comic strip.

Like, when I write a song, the song comes first before production. Everything is written on an acoustic guitar so you can strip away everything from it and have it be equally as entertaining and good without the bells and whistles.

With 'The Tudors,' I had a huge amount of material, I mean so many books and so much stuff about what they really said. So, in a way it was kind of trying to strip it out and find the stories inside all this material.

I found this book that had every 'Peanuts' strip from 1952 to 1955 and read every one. Amazing. So now I can say I have become a big 'Peanuts' fan.

I believe very firmly that gay people of every stripe and age should be role models for all children, and that means interacting with them.

Stripe was very much the product of our past experiences.

I was fascinated by stripes from the start. On clothing, they follow a woman's movements.

One time, just passing by, I happened to see Jack White from the White Stripes. I'm a huge White Stripes fan, and I did a whole 180. It was like my jaw hit the ground.

I'm inspired by artists who use a limited palette, like painter Piet Mondrian, and the White Stripes, two musicians who create an incredible sound. Our food is starting to go back to a 'less is more' style.

At the 'L.A. Times,' I always wanted to write about artists I thought were meaningful. So I interviewed Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Eminem, White Stripes. And I could understand how almost everybody I interviewed had a sense of artistry.

A lot of bands break through with their third record: the White Stripes, the Clash, the Replacements.

Kanye is producing in the true sense of the word. 'Real Friends' was an idea started by me and Boi-1da. We passed it off to Kanye, and Kanye kind of stripped it down and had Havoc add some drums to it. Kanye had the vision. That's really true-school production.

I'm enjoying writing songs that are more stripped back.

I remember being obsessed with Christina Aguilera's 'Stripped.' That was her peak, and she is such an amazing singer. Plus, I was a little gay boy, and the music video for 'Beautiful' existed, so obviously I was affected.

That's the conundrum of cartoon stripping, as opposed to political cartoons. When your anger is the driving force of your drawing hand, failure follows. The anger is OK, but it has to serve the interests of the heart, frankly.

I find the greatest songs in the world come out of pain, and I don't like it! Here's what it does: It strips away all of your facade. It makes you so honest. It's cleansing.

For me, the very last great strip is 'Peanuts.' After 'Peanuts,' there are a very few strips that I enjoyed for different reasons, but I don't think they were great. I don't think anything's come along since Charles Schulz - and I mean since 1950 - that I think rises above the professional or the eccentric into that realm of greatness.

There's no-one in particular that we look up to, because we strive to be something that's never gone before.

What I strive for is that everywhere I go, I leave a positive impact.

I believe that every single person was brought into this world for a purpose and that we should never leave the world as we found it, we should always strive to make a positive change.

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.