David Byrne Quotes

In terms of negotiating a career - I've always grown up being an insider and an outsider to different worlds, across different classes and cultures, so I have always naturally liked making films or music that puts things in unexpected places.

If I can still have Hollywood and a piece of Bollywood, I will take it.

I'm unique - a cosmopolitan mix.

Puerto Rico is the perfect meeting place between Spain, the country I come from, and America, the country where I now belong. The meeting point of two worlds where magic can happen.

The great thing about the arts, and especially popular music, is that it really does cut across genres and races and classes.

Music has no race. It appeals to everybody.

I feel blessed to even be able to put out an English album. Not too many Latin artists get the opportunity to come out and record another genre that's so different to Bachata.

Soul is a colourless thing. I don't think you have to be a black person to be automatically soulful. I respect Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake; they do what they do. For me, my philosophy has always been 'contribution before competition.'

I've benefited from the best of both societies and both cultures, East and West.

There are better ways we can transform this virulent hatred - by living our ideals, the Peace Corps, exchange students, teachers, exporting our music, poetry, blue jeans.

One night I'll be in Los Angeles and it'll be a Latin crowd, and then another night I'll go to Fresno and it'll be an all-black crowd. To me, that's the beauty of the music.

Going back and forth between Western Arabic and African countries clearly created the various musical backgrounds I could have and obviously influenced my professional attitude, my way of approaching both music composition and singing, particularly phrasing.

In a way I spend my entire life stealing from everything - from the past, from cities I love, from where I grew up - grabbing things, taking not only from architecture but from Italy, art, writing, poetry, music.

I'm a little like Marco Polo, going around and mixing cultures.

I thought we were gonna open up the world of poetry and music to all kinds of things, and yet, I can't really think of anyone who's done anything like it since.

National culture can act as a bridge, instead of an obstacle, to mutual spiritual and intellectual understanding.

Since I came from another part of the world, I expected many differences in the way things worked, but at the end of the day, there actually were more similarities between the American and Indian entertainment industry: the same chaos, creativity, passion, and genius all around.

I think I am kind of put on this Earth to speak of being between worlds in my films.

There should be change - the West should understand our music and culture, and vice versa. With such collaboration, artists can come closer to each other and come to know each other.

Fusion fashion - that's what I'm inspired by, taking all these different cultures and then trying to put it together that a girl here would love to wear.

We in the so called 'Western civilisations' have so much to learn from other cultures, and they would stand to gain so much by learning from ours. We don't have all the answers - far from it... but nor do any other culture or religion.

My mother was American, and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music.

I've largely focused on Japan my whole career, so I was interested to see how my music would be received by people of different backgrounds, religions and cultures.

Like the ancient Silk Road itself, 'The Sound of Silk' will make the foreign familiar while challenging long-held notions of identity and our place in the world.

I was born and raised in China, Mandarin is my first language, and I definitely know America. I think that will be my strength, to try and bring the two worlds together.