Diana Ross Quotes

I'm interested in feedback and learning what people want. It's a tricky thing for me when I do a set list. You get bored doing the same songs. Let's say we do one ballad in two hours, and it's "Wild Horses." If you say, I'm tired of that, let's try something less well known, and then you're out there stumbling through this song you just relearned at sound check, and you realize people probably want "Wild Horses" instead of this. You do need to do some songs that aren't so well known. The question is how many? I'm open to people posting their requests.

People want to be amused, not preached at, you know. Morals don't sell nowadays.

Nobody can pretend to know what people want to read or hear or see. People rarely know it themselves; they only know it after the fact.

My songs is hard stuff which politicians don't want on them radio station because they still want people to live in ignorancy.

I can understand that an audience, buying a ticket to see a picture of mine, wants to see something funny because they feel confident that at least I have a fighting chance to make a funny film when I make a film, whereas if I make a dramatic film there's one chance in a thousand that it's really going to come out great, so I understand how they feel about that and they're completely right.

People make songs so that somebody else will hear them and want to do them. I guess it's an indication that the songs aren't so ultra-personal that they can't possibly be interpreted by anyone else.

The [2012 covers album] 2120 [South Michigan Ave.] was different. We covered a lot of classics there. But most of the time when we did it I always prided myself on digging up obscure songs that no one knew of.

I would be quite happy never to play any of my better-known songs again. But unless you're Dylan, you can't afford to completely disregard what your audience wants.

If you're up there performing a song for the first time, it's as if you're hearing it through their ears. You become acutely self-conscious of the song in performance, so that's a good thing before recording. But I like to have some surprises for the audience; I don't want the audience to know everything that's going to be on the record, because these days, with the Internet, people become avid collectors of pre-knowledge.

I've always thought of the audience. I just want to entertain the audience. That's what it's about: what's good for the movie, what's best for the movie, what's best for the audience.

I think it's a privilege to be able to fly to somewhere where people want to see my show.

I never get too many problems. You can never please everyone anyway, obviously. And some people take the easy route and just play the greatest hits, and their audience is happy to hear that as well, and that's fine, but it wouldn't please me. But it doesn't trouble me.

Since the whole world is now concerned more about K-pop, I want to make more great songs which can be listed to as classics.

I find it really frustrating when people go, "I want to be famous and glamorous like you." It's hard for me not to have a bad thought when someone says that to me, since if there's anything this business is not, is glamorous. It's only glamorous for maybe five minutes every now and then.

Aside from producing I want to direct but I'm also going to get back out on the road.

Most movies are not very good. Most people know it and like to see them anyway.

I don't blame the people for the fact that so many movies are bad. I think there's a corrupt, perverted, lazy and sloppy attitude that's pervasive in the movie business. The whole entertainment business is kind of crumbling around us.

I also tried to focus on songs that Billie Holiday wrote, songs that she had a hand in shaping, like "Strange Fruit"; songs that were written for her or songs that she wrote herself, like "Fine and Mellow" or "God Bless The Child."

Musically, I want to graduate and become one of the greatest. You can't do that just spitting punchlines. I respect those people who say they love that old style, but it would be greedy of them to want me to stay that same person.

Yeah. My singing and my songs were very influenced by all of that. People would come up to me and ask, Is that a Billie Holiday song? I'd say, No, it's my song. The lyrics would be in my style, but the songs would be very jazzy.

People aren't stupid. People wanna see good movies, especially comedies. Those by the books comedies, I don't get it. Who likes those? Nobody likes those.

It's one of the craziest feelings to be on stage and know that you were sitting on your bedroom floor when that song came to be and now there's an arena full of people singing it.

Audiences have proved time and again that they don't want a steady diet of any entertainer airing his social views - especially if he's a comedian.

I want to entertain people. That's my whole life. To my last breath.

I don't go into any album with a concept or a deliberate direction. It's more letting the best music that really appeals to me at the time, the best songs that I find after many months and years of search and sifting through my collection, and asking radio people and journalists. It's really an ongoing search that's as much daunting as it is somewhat exciting.