Quotes About Artistry

The main rhythmic loop in 'Alaska' is me just patting on my jeans.

People like Jeff Buckley, the Mars Volta and Bjork made me listen to music differently. You learn the voice is an instrument you can do crazy things with.

It's weird to say, but Sebadoh is kind of Dinosaur Jr. Jr. My two bandmates in the early Sebadoh era, Jason Lowenstein and Jeff Gaffney, were huge Dinosaur fans. They were very influenced by Dinosaur.

If I wasn't making music I'd still be listening to it and talking about it. That's why I'm able to chill with Denzel Curry and then Jeff Tweedy, because the thing that's linking us is music.

Jeff always had a huge part in making a song a record. You felt like you were capturing lightning in the studio. It was never boring. He always was there to serve the song.

I had to find my own language in jewelry. That was important to me; it really had to be what I would love to have myself.

Creative industries are more important than the car industry, luxury jewels, and fashion.

I was too Jewish for 'Flashdance.'

The way Beyonce works, the song is a jigsaw piece and then she will piece various elements.

Jim Henson was an absolute genius.

I knew what kind of actor I was going to be, and I looked for inspiration to people like Alec Guinness, Cyril Cusack, Timothy Spall and Jim Broadbent. I looked at them and thought, 'They play human beings as they really are.'

I worked with Jim James on my film 'I'm Not There' - he sang 'Goin' to Acapulco' with Calexico backing him up. We just hit it off, and it's such a beautiful moment in that film.

I still think that if one of Jim's masterpieces were downgraded to sell crap, I would get sick.

If you have the opportunity to watch Nathan Fillion or Jim Carrey do a scene, it's like getting a Ph.D. in acting.

With acting, you have to become someone else. That's the fun part of it for me - to step outside of yourself and become a character. I guess being Jimmy Cliff is a little bit of a character, too.

What Joe and I get excited by, creatively, is exploring all of the different forms of filmmaking.

Joe Cocker never sounded forced. Crazy, perhaps, but not forced.

John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.

But, I've always loved John Mayer and I think T-Pain is brilliant.

I think John Coltrane is one of the great American heroes, like Abraham Lincoln and Emily Dickinson.

If you look at someone like Joe Strummer or John Lennon, when you heard their music you knew that they wrote it and they cared about it.

It takes a long time to find your own voice. Along the way, you imitate all the things that influence you - in my case Johnny Cash, Bowie, John Lydon.

You can go down the list of great artists and kind of understand that they are products of their environment. Whether it's U2 or Henry Rollins or myself or Johnny Lydon, they're gonna be products of their environment.

It must have been fascinating for Bono to have Johnny Cash do a cover of his song, and hear how he translates the words that he has used. And it would be fascinating to see a great director do his take on my work.