Paul McCartney // "I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn't weird at all and it was the people saying they were weird that were weird."
Stevie Nicks // "Don’t listen to other people. In your heart of hearts, you know what’s best for you."
Miles Davis // "Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent."
Henry Rollins // "If you hate your parents, the man or the establishment, don't show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against them, out-learn them, outlive them, and know more than they do."
Anais Nin // "It was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with."
Rick Rubin // "If you listen carefully, people explain to you what it is that they need."
Brad Pitt // "It doesn't mean fuck-all to me until...until you live it. That's why I never understood growing up with, 'don't do this, don't do that,' it's all about don'ts, and I was like how the fuck do you know who you are and what works for you if you don't find out where the edge is, where's your line? You've got to step over it to know where it is."
Al Pacino // "My weaknesses...I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing."
Anthony Bourdain // "I used to believe that the human race as a whole was basically a few steps above wolves. That given the slightest change in circumstances, we would all, sooner or later, tear each other to shreds. That we were, at root, self-interested, cowardly, envious and potentially dangerous in groups. I have since come to believe...after many meals with many different people in many, many different places...that though there is no shortage of people who would do us harm, we are essentially good. That the world is, in fact, filled with mostly good and decent people who are simply doing the best they can. Everybody, it turns out, is proud of their food (when they have it). They enjoy sharing it with others (if they can). They love their children. They like a good joke... Sitting at the table has allowed me a privileged perspective and access that others, looking principally for 'the story,' do not, I believe, always get. People feel free, with a goofy American guy who has expressed interest only in their food and what they do for fun, to tell stories about themselves...to let their guard down, to be and to reveal, on occasion, their truest selves... People, wherever they live, are not statistics. They are not abstractions... I’m not saying that sitting down with people and sharing a plate is the answer to world peace. Not by a long shot. But it can’t hurt."
Patti Smith (& Robert Mapplethorpe) // "It's a dark period now because everyone is beguiled by fame... I think that true artists just have to keep doing their work, keep struggling, and keep hold of their vision. Because being a true artist is its own reward. If that's what you are, then you're always that. You could be locked away in a prison with no way at all to communicate what's in there, but you're still an artist. The imagination and the ability to transform is what makes one an artist. So young artists who feel overwhelmed by everything have to almost downscale. They have to go all the way to this kernel and believe in themselves, and that's what Robert gave me. He believed in that kernel I had, you know, with absolute unconditional belief. And if you believe it, you'll have that your whole life, through the worst times."
Mikhail Baryshnikov // "When I see people on the street, I look at how they walk. It's like a signature, a fingerprint."
Hermann Hesse // "I live in my dreams...that's what you sense. Other people live in dreams, but not in their own. That's the difference."