I’ve made over 25 studio albums, and I think probably I’ve made two real stinkers in my time, and some not-bad albums, and some really good albums. I’m proud of what I’ve done. In fact it’s been a good ride.
David BowieThe thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you’re moved by the fact that it’s real people making music. You make that human connection with a song like ‚Let It Be‘ or ‚Long and Winding Road‘ or a song like ‚Bohemian Rhapsody‘ or ‚Roxanne,‘ any of those songs. They sound like people making music.
Dave GrohlRap was more of a release for me, a journal.
Kevin GatesI’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.
Denzel WashingtonAnd I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.
Barack ObamaIt’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.
The WeekndWe need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.
Barack ObamaI’ve always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of – I just sung a lot.
Billie EilishIf people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.
EminemIn all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.
Kendrick LamarWhen I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band – or at least in a Pixies cover band.
Kurt CobainThere’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.
J. ColeWe don’t want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful – not only to that member of the community but the entire community.
Kamala HarrisWe need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.
Barack ObamaI think the bottom of the totem pole is African-American women, or women of colour. I think they get the least opportunities in Hollywood.
Denzel WashingtonI don’t just listen to rap.
Kevin GatesI’m a huge fan of R. Kelly’s. He’s a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.
The WeekndThe United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them.
Barack ObamaI went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.
David BowieWe only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.
Stephen HawkingI sing seriously to my mom on the phone. To put her to sleep, I have to sing ‚Maria‘ from West Side Story. When I hear her snoring, I hang up.
Adam SandlerI’m not a sheep.
Christopher HitchensThe lyrics are constructed as empirically as the music. I don’t set out to say anything very important.
Brian EnoThe world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs.
F. Scott FitzgeraldI just wanted to be a songwriter. I did really not like the sound of my own voice.
AuroraWe don’t make music – it makes us.
David ByrneYou can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.
Frank ZappaWhen I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.
Taylor SwiftI don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.
Matthew McConaugheyIt’s always fun to talk about jazz.
Clint EastwoodWe view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.
Blaise PascalRacism is real in this country.
Kamala HarrisWe can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.
Maya AngelouSearching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.
David BowieWe uploaded ‚Ocean Eyes‘ to SoundCloud, and it started getting a lot of plays pretty much immediately.
Billie EilishI was 14, and I fell in love with Pink Floyd.
The WeekndThe thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.
Barack ObamaLyrics are so important, but they’re really underrated.
Billie EilishChicago gave me more music than any other city in America.
Dave GrohlGod made me and broke the mold.
Jean-Jacques RousseauAs much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I’d eventually run out of steam on that, and that would’ve been the end of it.
Clint EastwoodI think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it’s not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That’s how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be a musician.
Dave GrohlThe colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.
Elvis PresleyMy only scheme was to be a rapper.
EminemMy mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I’d play ‚em over and over.
Clint EastwoodMusic is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.
Arnold SchwarzeneggerFive or six songs leaked from the original version of ‚Encore.‘ So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them.
EminemI believe that God breathed life into every person and that every person is made in the image of God and you have accept them as they are, on their journey. I’m not here to preach hate or push people down.
Joel OsteenThe thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that’s the most interesting: the part that doesn’t go according to what you expected.
Richard P. FeynmanWith my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.
Abraham MaslowWhen it comes down to it, glam rock was all very amusing. At the time, it was funny, then a few years later it became sort of serious-looking and a bit foreboding.
David BowieTelevision sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.
David ByrneI couldn’t have written things like ‚Low‘ and ‚Heroes,‘ those particular albums, if it hadn’t have been for Berlin and the kind of atmosphere I felt there.
David BowieWhen I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.
David BowieI don’t profess to have music as my big wheel and there are a number of other things as important to me apart from music. Theatre and mime, for instance.
David BowieThere’s poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don’t like doing what people expect me to do.
Dave GrohlI’m tri-racial: African-American, Native American and Euro – that’s the Scotch-Irish part.
Alice WalkerWhen I’m writing a record, I kind of don’t listen to much music. Just because I want to be inspired solely on the emotion; just based on how it feels.
Taylor SwiftI think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.
Matthew McConaughey