Lionel Richie Quotes

People don't want to pay 8 or 9 dollars to go see a problem that they have in their life, on screen. They pay to get away from that. That's why they watch soap operas.

I'm the first one in line to go watch 'Spider-Man', but there's definitely something in me that makes me want to go to a movie and see something that makes me feel good about life.

The musicals had a good, happy feeling, saying that the world is a better place. They say it's not reality, but who cares? There's too much reality these days.

Escapism makes a lot of intuitive sense - whisk people away from their cares with stories of a better life.

It's a beacon of hope in a dark world. You watch 'The Muppets' and you're smiling for an hour and a half, and then you go outside, and the economy is in crisis.

It just seems to me that the world's kind of a mess, and the more messy it gets, the more interested I am in escapist fare. Having a good time is something that isn't about the war in Iraq or the Asian flu or the Kyoto protocol - things that are horribly depressing to consider in our real lives. I'm eager to get away from them.

Life can be challenging and sad... but music is the easy part.

What motivates me is seeing people in the crowd and wondering what they're going home to and what they're dealing with, and knowing that for the time being we're their escape.

It's a crazy world, so sports and athletics and music can be a form of escapism.

Comedy gives you a shot of euphoria that distracts you from everything that's awful.

People don't want drama 365 days a year. I'm a sense of relief; it's my job to take your mind off what's bad for that brief second you're in the room with me, regardless of shape, race, colour or anything. It brings people together, and it makes me feel good about what I'm doing.

When times are tough, people want to escape to somewhere fantastic without having to pay actual escape-to-somewhere-fantastic cash. And offering a couple of hours away from the ordinary is what the movies do best.

When entertainment was begun, during the Depression, it was supposed to take people's minds off reality. People could sing, dance, act or do anything. It was the type of entertainment that was available.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.

The best thing ever is when some guy in his 50s taps me on the shoulder and says, 'I just want to let you know I hate my job, I hate my wife, and I come home and I watch reruns of your show and it's the only half hour of the day when I laugh and I forget how miserable life is.'

Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies.

Sometimes movies really are the best medicine.

Humanity needs dreams to be able to survive the miseries of daily existence, even if only for an instant.

Life seems terrible and disappointing, so you need to find something you need to make you stick around. Music that makes me happiest is the saddest music, with the most emotional feel.

I always say to myself that if I can make a movie that makes a kid smile or gives them some hope or something to get excited about, then I'm applying myself in the best way that I can. I don't think that just goes for kids. I think that it goes for adults, as well, and for families.

I'm trying to tell a story, to entertain. I try and do something that might just take people's minds off their troubles.

'Blind Date' was my lifeline. It was 90 minutes when I could forget about everything, forget about the world.

There are so many things to be worried about, and I wanted to make a record that people could put on, and it would lift them up the way the sun did for me each day.

Men, women, and children who cannot live on gravity alone need something to satisfy their gayer, lighter moods and hours, and he who ministers to this want is, in my opinion, in a business established by the Creator of our nature. If he worthily fulfills his mission and amuses without corrupting, he need never feel that he has lived in vain.

The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.