Fernando Botero Quotes

I've always had a certain fascination. It's basically paint what you know, and this is what I grew up with.

In 'A Likely Story,' I wanted to recreate the events, the mood, and the imagery of my life as a teenager. I was thirty-seven when I wrote it.

I've been painting and drawing fish since I was very young. My mom found old pictures I did when I was around 6 or 7 of all these sharks and scuba diver looking back, a big ship, throwing a harpoon. There was already a message within what I saw.

I have lived my whole life in Delhi. I used to live in Rohini and then I moved to Munirka. I have seen north and south Delhi very closely. That's why my songs and raps have a Dilli waali feel to it. Delhi made me who I am today and I am proud of it.

I was born in Faridabad and I spent a major part of my growing up years in Delhi before shifting to Mumbai. Delhi-NCR is still very special to me.

My works are an imitation of my own past and present.

I think for an artist it's really important to have experiences, and I've had a lot of those. It's definitely inspired my lyrics and my style, even down to what I wear.

I don't believe that a writer does something wonderful spontaneously. I believe it's the result of years of living, of study, reading, his very personality and temperament. At one particular moment, all these come together and the artist 'expresses' himself.

I'm not talking about Russia in my music. I've never been to Russia. I'm not talking about Africa, Switzerland, China. I'm talking about me being American and growing up in a crazy world and helping to reflect all different sides of life.

The highs, the lows, the peaks, the valleys, whatever, it's all going to go into the art, whether I'm singing or acting or whatever.

I've grown up watching football my whole life.

People ask, 'Are your things autobiographical?,' and I think, no, they're not autobiographical directly, but of course my life has informed my work.

I've been very surprised by people asking me what my teenage experience was like.

I've always drawn on bits and pieces of my own life.

I grew up in a neighborhood that had a lot of things to offer, good and bad.

My formative years were in Jersey and I'm kind of Jersey at heart.

When I'm singing, it's a mixture of my innocence in the projects, my mom and dad. It's all the good and the bad, the laughs and the frowns that I went through and seen other people go through. Then you be trying to write it. Whatever's coming out, you try and make it all cool.

I don't draw on my inner life in my work.

I was in Madrid as a young girl and a teenager. I'll never forget when I went to the Prado Museum for the first time and saw the paintings of Goya. They had such a big impact on me.

Growing up in New York City and hip-hop are two inseparable things, two things that are totally intertwined in our lives.

Honestly, I think, as an artist, it's everything that's in your life that informs what you do. So, obviously, growing up in Cleveland has played a big role in how I see the world.

Until I was about 13, Manhattan had been a world seen from its edges.

London's where I grew up and had most of my experiences.

It wasn't like I was specifically wanting to write songs about technology. It's just what I lived, what I was experiencing growing up.

I wanted to do something raw and raucous and R-rated. But then 'Middle School: the Worst Years of My Life' came to me. One reason I took this movie on is because I saw it as a really great opportunity to revisit my own past through this character.