They wasn't gonna give you nothin'. I didn't care as long as they let me play my music. Cash on the spot... You cheat me and I'm gonna get me some money, too.
These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed.
Father's Day each year makes me grateful for what my father did for me. This has little to do with our relationship, and much to do with what he taught me.
We never really felt a real level of respect. The fame was fantastic, but that wasn't that important to me, because for every million people that loved me I focused on the one that hated me.
I had a science teacher in middle school who inspired me... simply because she acknowledged me and made me feel that what I had to offer was worthy.
The first movie that made me cry was 'Dead Poets Society.' That one gets me. 'O Captain! My Captain!' That moment kills me.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
Somewhere I just want to find someone that's going to love me forever no matter what; I want someone to show the inside of my head to. That thought keeps me going.
When I was 3 my parents put me in gymnastics because I was a bundle of energy and they just didn't know what to do with me! They put me in a Tots class and I just fell in love with it.
'Hatful of Hollow' and 'The Smiths' were lent to me, and they made me want to create music that might make another person feel like they made me feel - to have an effect on someone.
I played music and sang from my earliest memories. The first pictures of me show me wandering around with a guitar that was larger than I was, and it became almost second nature to me.
People in England were coming up to me, saying, My mother and father turned me on to your music. This happened to me 20 years ago. When I was 40 they were saying that.
To me, a big crossover was what happened to me years ago, like bringing my music in Spanish to Europe, or Asia. To me, that's a crossover because Spanish is not a language that everybody talks.
Music for me is an emotional thing and it really does make me happy. It's not a tool for me to get fame or see my face in the papers or anything like that. It's about the fact that I really do enjoy it.
I think being snobby about the kind of storytelling people do, it just irks me. It irks me. And in fact, it's one of the things that drives me to make as many horror movies as I do.
I watch comic book movies. Give me 'The Avengers,' give me 'Thor', those are my area. But I don't watch comedies.
I'm not one of those actors where filmmakers that I admire ask me to be in their movies. I meet them at parties and they're nice to me, but they never ask me to work with them.
Stupid people do make me lose my temper and most people are stupid, fortunately for me. It's made it easier for me to make a living.
Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away.
Authorities arrest me, release me, and then invite me back to host public events. I think it's interesting.
But, I would be naive not to recognize the number of musicians who tell me they have been influenced by me and sight me - as well as Alex and Neil - as a musician who has been a positive influence on their playing.
