So I said to the gym instructor: 'Can you teach me to do the splits?' He said: 'How flexible are you?' I said: I can't make Tuesdays. '
The danger of art created to rise above the noise is that it may end up being noise itself.
The more successful the work, the more people will step in to try to influence and manipulate the work for their own benefit.
Art is the body's pronunciation of the soul.
If anyone should have a reason to not be afraid, to move beyond the expectations of culture, that is kind of the whole message of Christianity.
The person who creates from the noise simply adds to the noise. The person who creates from a place of listening, however, can actually make something worthwhile and enjoy his work in the process.
It's hard to make a living in music, so a lot of times in the arts it's safer to kind of fit into a box.
It's always amusing to see how much less the political class knows than the rest of us do. . . . it's never occurred to [the likes of Senators Brownback and Obama] that they bear a worse stigma than any AIDS patient, being almost universally regarded as blowhards, crooks, dopes, and fools.
The boss says that games in hand are no good unless you turn them into points. What he's getting at is that games in hand aren't much good unless you turn them into points.
According to my own experience, the highest level of inner calm comes from the development of love and compassion. The more concerned we are with the happiness of others, the more we increase our own well-being. Friendliness and warmth towards others allow us to relax and help us to dispel any sense of fear or insecurity so we can overcome whatever obstacles we face.
I would do the occasional score. I thought it was the most thrilling thing. It was instant. You made the music and they played it right away to millions of people. I found it thrilling.