PJ Harvey Quotes

I've always been very interested in the visual aspect of what I do.

[I] try to do both because the writing for me, to be a new artist, the writing is gonna pay the bills.

At this point in my life, I'm probably not gonna be able to stop writing because it's gonna help me be able to do what I need to do.

Before I record for real, I know pretty much exactly how I want them to feel.

I would listen most particularly to the countries whose language I didn't understand, didn't know what they were singing. But being a singer myself, I could understand because of the emotion.

There's a level of discipline I use as a writer, designed to get better at what I'm doing, that requires quite a lot of study and quite a lot of hard work as well.

I work on words, mostly, toward them being poetry or short stories, and then some of those become songs.

I'm always writing, the past 10 years. A lot has changed, in that it's something I do every day.

As I grew older, I actually was prepared to go into fine arts school and do a degree. That was what I was actually settled upon when I was offered a record deal.

Maybe I'm just purely lucky. If I've come up against obstacles I've always found another way around it.

I grab an instrument to make my body a song, but I'm not a player as such, maybe a little more on guitar, but certainly not piano.

I've been so used to being supported by musicians, and I don't class myself as a particularly adept musician on instruments. I think I'm a songwriter.

I do take enormous interest in what's going on. I try to see whatever I can, whenever I can.

I had a chip on my shoulders 'cause I felt like I was being overlooked.

But huge photographs of dead bodies are slightly different. I couldn't find much humor there.

I think Ive got a pretty good sense of humor.

Yeah, I mean I am somebody that makes an effort to go and see a lot of exhibitions, painting, drawing, sculpture.

When I write - I always write on my own - I demo those songs on a four-track.

When I was young, I had idols that I thought were wonderful. I wanted to be just like them.

I'm probably much more influenced by film-makers and painters than I am by other songwriters or poets.

There is nothing more boring than doing singing exercises.

With songs I almost see the images, see the action, and then all I have to do is describe it. It's almost like watching a scene from a film, and that's what I go about trying to catch in a song.

It varies, I don't think there is any one set way of writing songs or coming up with ideas, it comes in so many ways you know.

In the same way, I write some of my more difficult pieces when I'm at very happy stages in my life.

I really don't pay too much attention; I don't go out of my way to read any interviews.

I don't let nobody sign for my money. Me and my wife write our own checks. So, if there's some money missing, we know how it got missing.

The mentoring program [of the Steve Harvey foundation] is to teach young boys the principles of manhood.

I tell people I'm a stand-up comedian two hours a week. The rest of the time, I'm somebody's husband, I'm somebody's father. I'm a man. I take great pride in that.

I don't want to be 60 years old standing on stage telling some jokes. I want my life to mean something.

I'm a old hoodlum, so I will jump on you if I have to.

The hip hop community is not at fault here - I'm definitely not blaming them. But, that can't be the only view of manhood for our young men.

Our only teachers and role models for our young men cannot be, you know, videos, and, the hip hop community.

The problem in our community is not the women - I mean, they've done all they can do.

You can't ask the women to do anymore. It's time for us as Black men to step up and be what we're supposed to be.

I was raised by a mother who was a Sunday school teacher and a father who worked hard. Together they taught me to give back.

I'm not a movie star and I know that.

I'm not a good mother at all.

I never saw myself not being a stand-up. That was my plan.

I tell jokes for a check; I'm on TV for a check.

Hip-hop is a beautiful thing. I think that the music genre itself has created more millionaires than any other music genre before it, especially in our community.

The Lord saved my soul.

There's a lot more to me than just funny.

It never ceases to amaze me how much people talk about relationships, think about them, read about them, ask about them - even get in them without a clue how to move them forward.

So many people are missing their way in life because they are afraid to sign the lease on their gift.

People get jealous and use whatever information they have to make you feel bad and themselves feel better.

I won an amateur night, October 8th, 1985. I went to work the next day and quit my job.

I'm going to take this God-given gift of being funny, and I'm going to spread it out like peanut butter on everything I do.

I'm not a relationship expert. I'm an expert on manhood.

We all think that this relationship thing is a game out here. All I'm saying to women is, 'Okay. If it's a game, here are the rules that we play by.'

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.