Quotes About Expression

I think it was T.S. Eliot who talked about good poetry being felt before it's understood. I believe that. There are some bands where I love their lyrics but I don't have a clue what they're on about.

For me, I wanted somebody that got me musically, that understood that I'm an artist and this is who I am. I'm not going to be like another artist on your label, probably - hopefully. I found all those things with the Broken Bow group.

For a while, I felt a little self-impelled to write Lou Reed Kind of songs. I should have understood that a Lou Reed song was anything I wanted to write about.

There are people I've worked with who have never understood how fashion works. They keep saying they love fashion, yet they've never actually grasped that this isn't yoghurt or a piece of furniture - products in the purest sense of the term.

I don't want to be a race-transcending leader. I want to be deeply understood as a man, as African- American, as a Christian, all that I am.

I suppose that was my first bit of acting, the acquisition of an English accent. It was really just an attempt to be understood.

Once I started writing novels, I understood how hard it was to write really good short stories.

I didn't really understand what you did when you went in front of the camera. And then suddenly I just understood it. When you're in a play, you carry the story, but you don't have to do that in film.

The more clearly you write, the more easily and surely you will be understood.

Many times I have written something, and after it was published, I understood what I was saying.

I have no tattoos at all - it was a huge undertaking for me in the '80s to let my parents know I was piercing my ear when I did 'L.A. Law.'

No, absolutely not, writing doesn't have to be like a jigsaw puzzle, it can be a very linear undertaking.

Writers are very much undervalued in the creative process.

You feel undervalued when you write the kind of fiction I write.

I think singing is such an important and incredible art form and it is quite undervalued at times.

Underwear makes me uncomfortable and besides my parts have to breathe.

When I get home, I'm not the boss like I am at work - I slip into a more feminine role. I take everything off and put on my Stella McCartney silk robe. I'll put on a red lip or red nails, and it lifts my mood. Sexy underwear also gives you a spark.

Sexual underwear is tacky.

These days, you have the option of staying home, blogging in your underwear, and not having your words mangled. I think I like the direction things are headed.

I play Xbox in my underwear.

Legendary photographer Annie Leibowitz persuaded us to pose in our underwear. When the magazine hit the stands we were horrified to see the caption 'Go-Go's Put Out.' Regardless, I was extremely excited to see us at every newsstand on every corner, our faces on the cover of 'Rolling Stone!'

Everyone is making the same kind of shows, about underworld and things like that. So I am hoping somebody breaks this trend, else we will again enter the same grind.

'Underworld' was my first filmed book. I think there are about seven of my lines in it.

Music permeates everything I do. I love everything from Grace Jones to Nicki Minaj to Underworld to D.J. MikeQ and beyond. Music is integral to my personal inspiration.