Some artists just ruin their voices because they don’t know any better.

The quote-unquote ‚description‘ of a leading man was once your tall, handsome man with the build of whatever, almost a trophy to some degree. I think now it’s about making a leading man what you want a leading man to be. In this day, you can’t deny talent. You look at Jonah Hill, you look at Zach Galifianakis, you look at myself.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

A chorus is not easy.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

The artists of the past who impressed me were the ones who really focused their work.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

I feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.

I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.

There are some singers that know exactly when to go, and others hang on much too long and that is the same, that is the same with judges.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

Talent and effort, combined with our various backgrounds and life experiences, has always been the lifeblood of our singular American genius.

I practiced drawing all the time and became very interested in it. If I was at a meeting that wasn’t getting anywhere – like the one where Carl Rogers came to Caltech to discuss with us whether Caltech should develop a psychology department – I would draw the other people.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.

I need to know how many records I’ve sold, how many album equivalents from streaming, which territories are playing my music more than others, because it helps me in conversations about where we’re gonna be playing shows or where I might open a retail location, like a pop-up store or something.

With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‚Are people interested?‘ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.

Let the path be open to talent.

Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It’s so much going on in music right now and somebody has to make a difference.

I think most artists would be happy to have bigger audiences rather than smaller ones. It doesn’t mean that they are going to change their work in order necessarily to get it, but they’re happy if they do get it.

I am really proud that I am one of the artists that has the opportunity to be on magazine covers and to be in the movies.

You aren’t normal if you sing to people. You aren’t a normal person. It’s nerve-racking.

What changed our lives forever was when Malcolm had the idea to sell rock ‚n roll records to trendy customers.

Every day, my mom and I would watch a different Judy Garland VHS. I love how she tells a story when she sings. It was just about her voice and the words she was singing – no strings attached or silly hair or costumes, just a woman singing her heart out. I feel like that doesn’t happen that much anymore.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

Pop music will never be low brow.

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

Mother Earth is very talented. She has produced Buddhas, bodhisattvas, great beings.

I had no talent for science. What was infinitely worse: all my fraternity brothers were engineers.

I always wanted to know, and I always used to daydream, about what it would be like to stand on a really big stage and sing songs for a lot of people, songs that I had written… Daydreaming was kind of my No. 1 thing when I was little, because I didn’t have much of a social life going on.

I won’t be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn’t mean I want them to stop looking.

I’m just changing the game because I know what the fans want and the people want ‚cause I’m a fan of hip-hop.

We was able to become real successful in the mixtape space.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

I was a good football player, and I had a chance to play with some great players.

I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.

When you’re all singing together, it brings things together. I know the songs that my grandfather and my father sang.

I’m not really an actor, I’m a reactor; I’m a pitchman. That’s what I do best. Nobody can do it any better.

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

I’ve been in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus since I was 8.

I have to work really hard to get the record deal – I have to spend years at it to get good. I have to practice to be good at guitar.

A lot of people ask me, ‚How did you have the courage to walk up to record labels when you were 12 or 13 and jump right into the music industry?‘ It’s because I knew I could never feel the kind of rejection that I felt in middle school. Because in the music industry, if they’re gonna say no to you, at least they’re gonna be polite about it.

I’ve been singing Shakira songs in front of my bathroom mirror into my hairbrush forever. It’s like a daily routine.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea of me being on stage having to sing in front of people.

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

In pop music, the public usually see the results – the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.

Writing is like anything else – the more you do it, the better you get at it, the easier it comes, and the less concerned you’ll be about what’s going to happen to it, where it’s going, what it sounds like, whether it’s right.

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.

I’m such a good lover because I practice a lot on my own.

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent.

Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument – learning to do your craft – that’s the most important thing! It’s not about what goes on in a computer!

I sing and play the guitar, and I’m a walking, talking bacterial infection.

I remember when the candle shop burned down. Everyone stood around singing ‚Happy Birthday.‘

I’ve never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn’t feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you’ve got to work as hard as them.

In Buddhist culture, offering food to the monk symbolizes the action of goodness, and if you have no opportunity to support the practice of spirituality, then you are somehow left in the realm of darkness.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

I’d love to do a musical. I’ve been known to have a good step or two. I’m half Samoan, you know, and part of our culture is singing and dancing daily.