R.J. Newman Quotes

In the early days of films, the movie star in this country replaced royalty. They've been demoted since then but they're still treated as beings larger than life.

So I've worked really hard, because nothing ever came easily to me.

I believe there can be dignity in the acting profession. And I think there ought to be more dignity in the publicity an actor gets.

I don't like gossip stories. Facts are okay. But when gossips begin making items, that's something else again.

I was terrorized by the emotional requirements of being an actor. Acting is like letting your pants down; you're exposed.

You discover a lot of things on your feet and if you don't have any rehearsal, then anything that happens on the screen is by accident.

Well, the nice thing about animation, you don't even really have to account for yourself. All of the physical stuff that you work on as an actor, you just throw away.

I think Hollywood is in love with sequels. If it's successful once, just jazz it up and shoot it out there again. I think it's unfortunate.

The rich don't have children; they have heirs.

Some day you do something where you use everything you know. You don't do it ostentatiously where you see the workings going on. But some day, if you're lucky, that will happen.

But I don't want to sing everything out of the side of my mouth, I want people to understand what I mean.

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old, Africa is far too hot and Canada's too cold. And South America stole our name, let's drop the big one.

The best of my songs are more than just a joke. There's something else going on - a character, or it's not just a plain joke.

I hate having to wait. I've got the thing done. I just want to see what happens.

Sometimes what I'm writing is more important to me than the rest of my life. It's more important to me that I'm writing well than anything else.

Some fools in the desert with nothing to do...invented me, and they invented you. And other fools keep it all going and growing. Everybody, we're a figment of their imagination.

I've often written about places that are totally different from anything I know. Sometimes they turn out better.

If I were to die tomorrow, I think they'd say Newman 56, composer of the hit song, Short People. Jumped off a mountain today.

It's very hard to get rich and famous at a young age and handle it well.

Who would want to break into [the music business]? It's like a bank that's already been robbed.

I don't remember ever having writer's block. If I sit in there for four hours, I'll usually have something.

I always thought my best album was 'Trouble in Paradise.' I was the happiest with that one.

I like to write my lyrics on clay tablets.

There's a million white people better qualified than a black man to be president of America.

Still, it's clear that there are lots of people out there who are uncomfortable [about racism]. The Civil War was a long time ago but there are aspects of it that remain unsettled.

It takes a whole lot of medicine for me to pretend I am somebody else.

To get nominated by the Republican Party you've got to be pretty reactionary, really.

Don't forget to bring that little blonde haired girl along. You know the one, love to watch her jump up and down.

I am half a man, holy Jesus, what a drag.

I like the performing. And interviews, even. And the stuff that's not sitting in a room by yourself with empty paper. But I never loved writing, to tell you the truth.

I'd like to explain why you fine young men had to be blown apart to defend this mud hole.

What I'm most pleased about is that there's no particular decline. The songs I wrote 40 years ago are no worse and no better - there's a consistency.

Stay away from drugs. They're not worth it. I've tried, but there's none of them that's worth it.

College men from L.S.U., went in dumb, come out dumb, too.

This one guy's wife is such a pretty brown thing, that I'm liable to give her a poke or two. Whaddaya think of that?

I seen her with the milkman, riding down the street. When you're through with my baby, milkman, send her home to me.

This is the Republican Party who has run against Russia for 80 years and you know, (Trump) hasn't mentioned (Putin) except in a positive way.

He got drunk last night, kicked Mama down the stairs. But I'm alright, so I don't care.

We'll have a kid or maybe we'll rent one. He's got to be straight, we don't want a bent one.

I like Public Enemy a great deal.

Mostly, I don't write overtly personal stuff.

I've worked with a band, and it's nice to have someone to travel around with, but I didn't like it as well on stage.

Even if it's absurd to think you can change things, it's even more absurd to believe that it is foolish and unimportant to try.

When my worldwas nothing but darknessI set my soul on fire.

I lived for so long without you, only dreaming of the concept of you. And, now that I know you, I can't imagine going back there... to a me that didn't know your name.

She chose messy, she chose wild. She chose life on her own terms.

A piece of advice his father had given him surfaced in Edgar's mind. Sometimes, he had said, it's better just to keep quiet and think with your heart.

People tend to raise the child inside of them rather than the child in front of them.

Some people simply seem to know how to live. They know when to seize the day, when to go with the flow, and when to row for dear life.

Slang surely, as it is called, comes of, and breathes of the personal