Tilda Swinton Quotes

I think the first older artist I related to and loved was Bowie.

I felt connected with Madonna from a very young age. I think I share a lot of qualities from her personality. I really respect her.

My brother was very important to me. And he played guitar. So that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a guitar player. So he was the first one to inspire me to do something with my life. And I was so glad that he was there.

I started playing guitar because of seeing Steve Vai.

Hulk Hogan was my reason for getting into the business. He was this larger-than-life entity.

Stevie Wonder was a big influence in my life.

I hope that somewhere in Small Town, U.S.A., a 15-year-old kid looks to me as a role model the way I looked at the Indigo Girls and Elton John as role models.

My greatest influence is Jimi Hendrix, and if he's been reincarnated, or if he's looking down, sideways, or looking up, I just wanted to tell him that I love him and thank him for opening doors for me. I just wanted to make it beautiful for him.

I've admired Alicia Keys since before I got into the music industry, just everything she represents as a female artist.

I write to music, and Nina Simone is always on my playlist to write to. I mean, she's inspiring. She's truthful and real and raw.

Some writers are curiously unmusical. I don't get it. I don't get them. For me, music is essential. I always have music on when I'm doing well. Writing and music are two different mediums, but musical phrases can give you sentences that you didn't think you ever had.

Bowie's obviously my biggest influence.

Acting-wise, I love Helena Bonham Carter. I love Kate Winslet. I love Angelina Jolie when she was 'Girl, Interrupted' Angelina Jolie. There isn't anybody that I can definitely point to and be like her. Because I've never felt like I've been able to relate to the women that are famous.

I guess when time came to make 'To The 5 Boroughs,' we had something important to say.

From day 1, Justin Timberlake has been a huge inspiration for me.

I would never have written 'Trainspotting' if it hadn't been for this album, 'Raw Power,' and 'Metallic K.O.'

I've always idolized Jay-Z He's one of my favorite persons, even before I knew him personally.

I always tell people, the first time I heard 'She Talks To Angels,' those lyrics did something to me.

Ideally, it would be cool to actually get to know artists enough to know what their feelings are, what they believe in, what they want people to get from them, what they represent.

We've never been shy to admit that Metallica is a huge influence in our lives and on our music.

I'm a big fan of lyrics - lyrics are the thing that move me in certain ways.

In college, I would follow Bob Dylan around, and I would show up to a concert, and he would sing some song he hadn't sang in a long time, and it would speak to something, and I would think it had some great fateful implication.

My brother Steve, who was a few years older than me, had 'Bad' on tape, and I remember listening to 'Smooth Criminal' and just thinking it was the coolest thing ever. I must have been five or six at the time, and I remember walking around school by myself thinking I was Michael Jackson. I wasn't dancing, exactly - more like walking musically.

I'm obsessed with Bruno Mars' records. I'd give my right leg to be able to sing like that dude.

Elvis may have been my first hero, but you couldn't relate to him.