Saul Williams Quotes

I love England and I love English culture, particularly English pop culture.

I love London and British women.

I take inspiration from books, movies, television, music - it all goes in the hopper. Depending on the project, I'm drawing from this or that piece of art that has stayed with me. Toni Morrison, George Romero, Sonic Youth - they are all in there.

My entire act is through and through British. I reference everything British.

Artwork, films, TV - it's always informed my work, no matter what I'm working on.

Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

I was told about 'Misfits' when we were in prep for 'Chronicle', and I wanted to watch it badly because I'm a fan of that kind of stuff. But I stopped myself because I was very careful about not getting too much contemporary influence.

Films like 'Velvet Goldmine' are an accumulation of research and references. I create an almost random resource of connections and am constantly distilling that into narrative specifics.

My mother has always been an Anglophile and taught my sister and me to love British history and literature.

You boil down your influences to a soup, and it all informs you.

I wouldn't be as comfortable with who I am if it had not been for Prince. I mean, my label 'Wondaland' would not exist without 'Paisley Park' coming before us.

If you look at any creative person's work, you can see bits and pieces of their influences. That's what an artist does.

I enjoy what England has to offer.

I've always loved English and loved English music and TV shows.

Frank Sinatra changed people's approach to singing. Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, van Gogh, they were all part of movements that allowed people to think about their craft differently. They changed the game. These people changed the game.

I think there's something amazing about British soul.

I don't actually read that much. I like movies a bit more. That's how I come up with ideas - by seeing things, hearing things, recycling things. Stealing things!

The whole British music scene of the mid-sixties had a pretty profound effect on me.

'Tragedy' and 'Loud City Song' are both inspired by stories from the past.

There are so many films I lean on and look toward and return to that give me some guidance on how to keep moving in the world, and that's what film does, at its best.

Everything I do references something that influenced me.

In England, 'The Muppet Show' is very much seen as an English thing. So for us in the U.K., it is one of the treasures of the history of children's TV and of comedy, basically.

Everybody influences everybody else, in my opinion. There are different trends in music all the time. No matter who starts them, if it's a true trend in the music, it ends up influencing other people as well.

I was doing some research and stuff and reading about Bowie. When he referred to his music as 'plastic soul,' I was like, 'That is the coolest thing I've ever heard.'

'The Imitation Game' is a very British film.