Beyoncé is the kind of artist where you're not gonna see it till it's right.

I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.

I know people who have written big hit country songs that are really kind of terrible songs, but for the rest of their life, they're the guy who wrote that. You've got to be careful; if you don't want...

I think from an artist standpoint, you have to put out music that you feel like represents you and things you feel like your crowd wants to hear. And if that drives them to go and download the album...

When Prince and James Brown were doing live sessions... recording a band is not easy. It's all delicate, important stuff you want to make sure you're doing the right way.

What I have to do as a musician is do everything that is not on the music.

What was exciting to me in talking to Kogonada was I was just very convinced that he was a very real and pure artist. He was so uninterested in the commercial game.

On my mixtapes, I just rap. I just lay out a lot of situations.

This weird thing that musicians have... it's got something to do with approval, and not feeling good enough, and therefore going out and being great somehow makes your life valid.

A record can make an artist sound in tune or make the music sound pretty. But the real test is performing live, and I think we pass fairly well, because people keep asking to see us play.

I got recognition because of film music, but people start recognizing me as an artiste more because of singles.

When you're playing a real character, you want to honor that person and receive inspiration from that person. They need to anoint you in some way that allows you to borrow just a small piece of their...

If somebody said to me, 'You've got one album to listen to for the rest of your life...' it would be Paul Simon's 'Graceland.' It's just one of those albums where every song is different but the whole...

I have never done a show based on whether it will work or not. I took up all my shows because I liked the character and wanted to be part of those shows.

To get a script like 'Death Proof' and to get cast in it just affirmed that I want to do character work; that's where my heart is. Maybe I will get to it again, maybe I won't, but it's what I like to...

I was really an actor before I knew I could sing. And I just put the two together and went to musical theater school. But acting is a huge passion of mine, so it doesn't matter which medium as long as...

I am an interpreter of music rather than a composer of it.

I am often asked which of my films has come closest to my own ideal of performance, and I always answer, 'Educating Rita.'

Film, as far as I'm concerned, is my area of artistic endeavor, so I never think of a movie that gets released as being all done—it's just when they took it away from you.

If I would get an album out every eight months and if I would write songs that were more up-tempo and try to focus more on making singles, then I could probably get more attention. But I don't think...

I thought it was so cool that all you knew about Prince was about his artistry and music.

Makeup is malleable and mercurial: The biggest joy I have every day is the opportunity to create, to play, and to invent with something I've loved forever.

I can live for my music, but I don't need to be recognized everywhere.

As an actor, you have to be able to put yourself into the character since your job is literally making the character and the situation he is in believable.

I always try to make the music that I like and think my fans will like.

That's kind of the challenging thing about writing an inaugural poem. You're speaking to everyone, but you don't also want to speak for everyone.

I don't really think of myself as a folk singer.

I love artists like Prince, who hold on to that element of mystery.

An actor is somebody who communicates someone else's words and emotions to an audience. It's not me. It's what writers want me to be.