I would advise any 17-year-old to surround yourself with people who listen to you, nod when you speak, and smile when you enter spaces.

I like their darkness but I also like the pop-side of the Velvet Underground.

I'm extremely busy and running around requires a lot of energy.

I have the background singers of Ray Charles, the background singers of Smokey Robinson, and the background singers of Barry White and I built a choir around that.

Nothing bad can happen if you train your butt off and make the right decisions and surround yourself with the right people.

I've never been around pets. I didn't have pets as a child.

When I started performing in public, I was probably around 10 or 11.

Your movie becomes much more narrow-minded when you have like-minded department heads. Whereas if you can surround yourself with people who have been a mother before, been a grandmother before, you get a much broader and wide-reaching swath of human emotions.

I've felt this real need to ground my work in my ideals.

My musical education was grounded in blues and Chicago blues - John Lee Hooker and Otis Redding.

Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel's existence.

When I was on the playground, people were calling me Jackie Chan.

I'm not cut out to lug babies around!

I think it's a very firm part of human nature that if you surround yourself with like-minded people, you'll end up thinking more extreme versions of what you thought before.

I want to toy around with producing a Broadway show.

I was always surrounded by expectation from the very first race I ran as a 5-year-old.

On the feet, on the ground, I have all the bases covered.

You should also appreciate the goodness around you, and surround yourself with positive people.

A president who aspires to be recognized as a global leader should not personally stake out a foreign-policy goal, commit himself eloquently to its attainment, and then yield the ground when confronted by firm opposition.

It's very important to surround yourself with people you can learn from.