It could be hectic sometimes when you're being an artist and running a label at the same time. But there are times when you just have to say that this my time period to work on my stuff, and then you say this is the time to concentrate on my artists.
Stardom happens - you can't plan it - it's destiny, and you shouldn't stand between you and your destiny. I'm letting my destiny play its part, and I go by my gut feeling. If I like my role, I say yes; if I don't, I just refuse, as simple as that.
My dad would always say, 'What can you do to make the world a better place?' Well, I can make people laugh.
So, you know, I always say that I'm a Mexican, but if I had to be a citizen of anywhere else, I'd be a citizen of Manhattan. I feel very much a New Yorker.
Say and do something positive that will help the situation; it doesn't take any brains to complain.
I have to slow down for some people. In Louisiana, people didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I remember seeing people glaze over. Seeing the moment where they've just completely lost all... They just wait for me to stop talking and then say, 'Yeah.'
When it comes to my family I never quite know how protective I have to be, or what I should or shouldn't say.
People say I'm the original Don Draper. I'm not Don Draper.
My experience of my father's death was that it was still taboo; nobody would meet me after my father died because they didn't know what to say.
If I know my own heart, I do now feel the necessity of resigning myself into the hands of my God, to mould and guide me at His will; tho I dare not say that I am, at present, willing to do it.
The whole Indian thing, I always say it's really the American holocaust. It's something we need to look at.
On landing at New York I caught the yellow fever. The kind man who commanded the ship that brought me from France took charge of me and placed me under the care of two Quaker ladies. To their skillful and untiring care I may safely say I owe my life.
I say it often, that I feel like I'm just living out the Story Mode in 'Smackdown vs. RAW' that I always used to play.
I am so happy to be alive. That's the one thing I'd like for people to know. Sometimes people walk by and slip up and say the wrong thing about me, and I'll smile. They wonder why am I smiling. Because I'm happy that I'm alive.
I hope I can help guys come out and say, 'All right, dude, I got a manicure... and I liked it.'
One thing Della Valle taught me is the power to say no if something isn't right. That mattered even over sales.
When you do have songs where you're going to say something, some kind of statement about cultural or social stuff, that in general people love it. People love to be challenged in that way.
I think you don't do work for controversy alone, and whenever you do new work which people don't understand and they say it is done to create controversy.
I used to say, 'Mad' takes on both sides.' We even used to rake the hippies over the coals. They were protesting the Vietnam War, but we took aspects of their culture and had fun with it. 'Mad' was wide open.
A battle is developing between them' I say developing, because it's not yet on.
I'd say that my musical influences are anywhere from pop-rock electronica, new age and classical. But I think that specifically, bands - I love Jem, I love Sigur Ross, I love David Gray, I love Elliot Smith... a lot of different people. But I don't find lyrical inspiration from anybody.
Americans deserve to feel secure in their own lives, in their own middle-class aspirations, before you go to them and say, 'We're going to have to enforce navigable sea lanes in the South China Sea.'
Manners is the key thing. Say, for instance, when you're growing up, you're walking down the street, you've got to tell everybody good morning. Everybody. You can't pass one person.
I would have to say honestly I was very pleased to be in a film whether it was good or bad with De Niro, Norton and Brando even if I don't have any scenes with them, I thought it was pretty good company to keep.
Look, I'm not a perfect person. I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble. I wear suits that are cheap. But I say what I think and I believe what I say, and I'm willing to say things that are not popular but ordinary people know are right.
We all say no to war, we are all for justice and peace. But sometimes in order to maintain peace, armed action is necessary. But we hope it won't be the case.
What I would say about Barney Eastwood is that when our relationship worked, it worked extremely well. He had a lot of strengths as a promoter and a manager.
What I do say is, yes, children may be resilient and they have been able to deal with all sorts of difficulties they have faced, but the bottom line is this: I believe very strongly children need a mother and a father in the home.
One of my favorite actors is Paul Newman. He could tell so much with a single look, whereas some actors would need an entire five page monologue to give off the feeling of what he could say with just a single look.
I would be an idiot to say comedy is easy, but it does come naturally. It never feels forced.
You watch these reality shows and say, 'Oh, I would do that, except for eating all the gross stuff.' These reality shows are like everyone's little guilty pleasure. To have an opportunity to be on one, why not? Anybody who says, 'No, I don't want to be on one' is kind of lying in the back of their heads.
As Trotsky didn't exactly say, you may not be interested in electronic snoops, but snoops are interested in you, whether or not you keep Coke's secret recipe on your iPhone.
It wouldn't be fair to say that conservatives cherish property the way liberals cherish equality. But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives' recipe for judicial activism just as they say liberals have misused the equal protection clause.
Academics act like they are important, but when something is academic it is meaningless. People say, 'It's academic, now let's get work done.'
I think one thing you could probably say for all my albums is that they're all pretty eclectic pop. There's always a little bit of urban influence, some dance, a little bit of country, singer-songwriter, pop-rock. I like everything! On every album you can find that.
I wouldn't say 'Avatar' changed my life, but it definitely changed my career.
