As I said, if you don't stand up for yourself, people aren't going to think that you can stand up for them.
I guess after Dances With Wolves they probably tried some derivative westerns, and if they didn't work, they said the western is dead and moved on to something else.
Remember, I'm someone who got fired from Disney and eight days later started the first studio in 65 years with two of the most brilliant, successful people in the history of the entertainment business, doing something everyone said was somewhere between improbable and impossible. I'm afraid that's exactly what I love doing.
Pharrell is a person who has influenced the world. I see myself in him, so I said, 'You're an alpha, and I'm an alpha, and I want to be able to express myself in every way, like you do.'
When I was driving home after registration, I heard this song on the radio, a guy singing about not ever going to class in college and always hanging out and singing for his friends. I laughed and said, I can relate, because it was so much like me. I realized right then I would pull out of school and pursue a music career.
They said this is Vanity Fair, and I said, Oh, I already take the magazine. They said Annie Leibovitz wants to take your picture and I thought, How nice!
There used to be a cruel joke that said Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be; Obama is the Brazil of today's politicians. He has obviously achieved nothing.
Pitbull is, like, one of the most incredible humans. He's an amazing guy, and when we first connected on 'Fireball,' he said, 'I love it!' He recorded the verse in a day, we mixed it the next day, and it was on the radio in like two weeks after we made the initial track. That's just how he works. He's so hard working, kind, and really appreciative.
An aged rabbi, crazed with liberalism, once said to me, We Jews are just ordinary human beings. Only a bit more so!
The numbers may be said to rule the whole world of quantity, and the four rules of arithmetic may be regarded as the complete equipment of the mathematician.
A few years ago, if you had told me I'd be moving back to Glasgow I'd have said, 'No way'. But it's changed. It's much more vibrant, bohemian. But I'm 35 and I've become a bit of a homebody, I don't really go out much. Same in New York. My home could be anywhere but I love Glasgow.
I said to my friends that if I was going to starve, I might as well starve where the food is good.
I gave everything I ever wrote to Johnny Cash. I think he said later in some interview that he would take them home and throw them in the lake with all the other demos. I'm sure he got a million of them.
The other day the President said, I know you've had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. He paused, then said, would you like a puppy?
After having done this whole slew of press for 'Big Love', now I'll have anxiety dreams for like a week and a half about all the stupid things I said. I can't even imagine being in front of the cameras all the time. I had a weird dream the other night that I was on 'Jersey Shore.'
I can't remember who told me but I was advised early on not to Google myself or read things about myself... I don't read a lot but get the gist of what's been said from friends and family. It's good to avoid it if you want to be normal person.
There's a lot to be said for doing what you're not supposed to do, and the rewards of doing what you're supposed to do are more subtle and take longer to become apparent, which maybe makes it less attractive. But your life is the blueprint you make after the building is built.
In third grade, I was taking tap-dance lessons, and about six weeks before the recital I wanted to quit. My mom said, 'No, you're going to stay with it.' Well, I did it, and I was bad, too! But my parents never let their kids walk away from something because it was too hard.
I went into a French restaraunt and asked the waiter, 'Have you got frog's legs?' He said, 'Yes,' so I said, 'Well hop into the kitchen and get me a cheese sandwich.'
You know, Willie Wonka said it best: we are the makers of dreams, the dreamers of dreams.
For our senior picture, they said, 'Black or navy blazer.' And I thought, Why do I want to look like everybody else?
One night at a party, a really drunk guy came up to me and said, 'Whoa you look like Yves Saint Laurent' because I was wearing a turtleneck. I'd love to track that guy down and tell him that he gave pretty good casting advice.
There's a lot to be said about stability. So many people don't get married nowadays - you see it less and less - but it's a shame if you don't ever have that experience of sharing something with someone else. It's a real shame.
I'm cleaning toilets for $30 a day, because I needed that $30, and people are pointing at me, saying, Look at the big movie star. Look where he is now. I just said, I'm where God put me.
I could have been a superstar in America - I was certainly taken out there. But I said, 'No way, Jose, I'm not staying here in this madhouse.'
I wish I had more guts when I was younger because then I would've said things to people's faces instead of just running away all the time.
Ten years ago I said, you know, my goal is to be able to get food on the table. What I'm trying to say by that is trying to create a vibrant, capable and effective middle class. The quicker and stronger that we can be able to do this, the easier it is for political reform to move forward.
I didn't write this song. Someone was talking in a room. I just wrote down everything they said.
'The Lion' all began with a picture of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself, 'Let's try to make a story about it.'
My publicist always said as long as they pronounce your name or spell your name right, it's all good.
I had to go to a mirror and look at it. I couldn't picture myself in my own head. I had no image beyond a stick figure. I wasn't a mean person as a kid, or dumb, and something has to be said to justify excluding you.
I think the toughest part for me was when Herschelle said that he obviously looked up to his Captain, and he felt if his Captain could do it, then so could he, and that to me was when it really struck home.
And God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light, but the Electricity Board said He would have to wait until Thursday to be connected.
Back in my mid-20s I was told I'd never be able to have children as I wasn't having periods. Doctors tried to start up my monthly cycles, but when nothing worked, they actually offered me a hysterectomy. Without it, they said I might get ovarian cancer in the future. I chose not to have the operation, and am so glad I didn't.
I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.
When they said, 'Why is Floyd Mayweather not fighting Manny Pacquiao?' it was because Manny Pacquiao had a boss. I don't have a boss.
