You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.
The humanists' replacement for religion: work really hard and somehow you'll either save yourself or you'll be immortal. Of course, that's a total joke, and our progress is nothing. There may be progress in technology but there's no ethical progress ...
When I was in my 30s, I was at the end of a long-term relationship and going through a very hard time. I'd had about 15 different addresses and a series of relationships. I thought, 'It's time to have a look at yourself.'
The way I become friends with somebody is a slow process. You can't just spill your guts and tell them everything about yourself and expect them to listen and understand you because you don't know them. It's the same thing with a relationship.
There's a fascinating school of thought that some women are relationship addicts. You get really strung out on a guy who's not returning your enthusiasm and tell yourself you're going to fix him and make him better, and of course it's impossible.
How can you not respect somebody like me? If you don't respect me, it's because you got hatin' all over you. If you don't like me, you don't like yourself.
Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.
I'm a sports junkie, and I am interested in athletic will - how you exceed the expectations of your own performance when it counts to deliver something beyond yourself so that you can win.
With the success of the last three or so years, when a lot of people start treating you differently, there's a danger that you may start to think of yourself differently. You rely on your friends to say, 'Hey, wake up!'
I think it's like, you know, you can't get ahead of yourself, because no amount of success or exposure or opportunity is going to really matter or be ultimately fulfilling unless you can be totally present in what you're doing right now.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
I always had the desire to perform. If it wasn't my career now, I'd still be doing amateur dramatics. It's just something you love, and when you get paid to do it, you pinch yourself every day.
Don't go telling yourself you're in love with the man he could be; you gotta love the man standing in front of you right now. Simply put, love the person not the potential! Otherwise, he will always be disappointing to you. And whose fault is that?
You can know that the final show is coming up, and prepare yourself for it mentally, but when it finally occurs, it's like a dream. You stand there feeling the love the audience has for you, and you think, 'Is this really going to end?
You can only really open yourself up so far to someone that you don't truly love - you keep something back when you know somewhere in your gut that this relationship is going to be forever.
I think that's what I love about writing, is the ability to try to, in a sense, take a vacation from yourself and try to enter the sensibility of another time, another character, another place.
It's one of the main things that I love about my job. You are never playing yourself, so I really love that I get to be someone else, play a different character and take on that persona, but I also have to take on their qualifications.
Style is not a reward for the skinny. It's not, 'iI I'm rich, thin and young.' You may not like your size, but then don't invest in leather leggings. Let yourself want the expensive bag and really love it and show it off and have a ball with it.
Be honest with yourself and the way you act when you hear music. That way, when people watch, they'll see something from your heart and soul, and as a result will communicate your feeling and thought much better.
I think one of the most important things punk brought back was the whole concept of staying independent and doing things yourself. It made music a lot less boring in any category you can name.
If something doesn't work, you have to admit it. Always try to find what's going right and what's going wrong with your music. If you can, pool your resources and record yourself; do that frequently.
