Musicians

"We are Fragile, everyone. We all long for something more. Things are said and things are done and the pieces hit the floor. See how fragile."

"I am not who I would like to be, It's just who I am right now."

"I am but a draper in a room of wool, looking at the patterns, feeling like a fool. I'm going to take my fabric, stretch it to the seams, I want to find what's woven underneath these tailored dreams"

"When I go let it be like James Dean, I don't want to die slow."

"These carwreck conversations always seem to end this way, with me knocked out on the gurney and you serenely pull away."

"I just believe that life is more than rehearsing how to die."

"If heaven is the reason and dieing is the door, than why aren't we all leaving what's the drama for?"

"When did he cross that line from a person to a textile shrine?"

"What's the matter with your life? Why you gotta mess with mine?"

"The difference between a hooker and a ho ain't nothin' but a fee So hold your tongue tightly, wish you could be like me You're poppin' all that mess only to stress and to spite me Now you can get with that or you can get with this But I don't give a shit cuz really it's none of your business."

"No, I ain't hard like the bitches on a boulevard My face ain't scarred, and I don't dance in bars. You can call me a tramp if you want to But I remember the punk who just humped and dumped you."

"So the moral of this story is: Who are you to judge? There's only one true judge, and that's God So chill, and let my Father do His job."

"That is a Medieval way of drawing history, in which they do not respect the law and want the rest of the world to respect the law. That's not possible."

"I just don't get it. The pigeon was already dead, we found it in the road. And no other censor has objected. What is the problem with you, English? You killed millions of Indians and Africans, and yet you go nuts about the circumstances of the death of a single Serbian pigeon. I am touched you hold the lives of Serbian birds so dear, but you are crazy. I will never understand how your minds work."

"In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don't have experience of the west, they even believe that a western pile of shit is actually pie."

"My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. Okay, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks."

"There are always motherfuckers queuing up to pull you down to earth. But we must fly occasionally, we all have to feel that joy or we are nothing."

"If I was English I would be very much against Putin. If I was American I would even fight with him, but if I was Russian I would vote for him."

"The rhetorical process functioned in many areas other than speech: Curtius wrote about 'rhetorical landscape representations' while Serpieris speaks of 'la retorica al teatro' (the rhetorical use of theatrical space), and music historians have learned that the language and approach of musical theory in the Middle Ages were borrowed directly from medieval grammar and rhetoric."

"The melodic curves of speech are an expression of the complete organism and of all phases of its spiritual activities. They demonstrate whether a man is stupid or intelligent, sleepy or awake, tired or alert. They tell us whether he is a child or an old man, whether it is morning or evening, light or darkness, heat or frost, and disclose whether a person is alone or in company. The art of dramatic writing is to compose a melodic curve that will, as if by magic, reveal immediately a human being in one definite phase of his existence."

"In the passage quoted here from Monteverdi's madrigal [Cruda amarilli, mm.9-19 and 24-30], one sees a tonality determined by the characteristic of the accord parfait on the tonic, by the sixth chord assigned to the third and seventh degrees, by the optional choice of the accord parfait or the sixth chord on the sixth degree, and finally, by the accord parfait, and above all, by the unprepared seventh chord (with major third) on the dominant."

"For me," he explains his mammoth project, "it is an obligation to know and learn to understand the various styles living within the guitar, to work with them and pursue them up to a certain point and, when I feel I have learned enough about them, to let them go again. These CDs are a form of pool, a rucksack with everything I have at the moment and what I have focused on."

"I would like to leave you with a couple of thoughts:"

"Sometimes we get caught up in our troubles and our problems and we let life slip away, but life is precious, all of life, and one must try to take in as much of it as possible."

"My father once said, 'If the whole world wants to go left and you feel like going right, go right. You don't have to follow. You don't have to make a big deal about which way you're going. Just go. It's very easy."

"The less you want, the richer you are. The more you need in order to be happy, the more miserable you'll be."

"My father taught me that one of the most important abilities in life is to be able to take the pain and persevere, and for years this lesson had served me well."

"The most important battle is one to conquer yourself."

"I don't want problems solved for me. I want the fishing rod, not the fish."

"You need a mind open to possibility, conditioned to love the creative spirit we all have inside ourselves."

"Whether a person is spiritual or not, we all seek to get away from the stress, anger, and anxiety of everyday life. Some people drink, do drugs, or do worse to escape, and they hurt themselves in the process. Some people listen to music, mine included, and feel better."

"I don't dwell in the past; I don't wallow in old events and emotions. I don't waste time on regret. No use going over and over the details of what already happened."

"You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you'd get noticed."

"I believe we're responsible for everything that happens to us."

"All you need is passion. If you have a passion for something, you'll create the talent."

"Passion is the fuel."

"Sometimes the knowledge you've been given in school or by an elder - "this is just the way it is" - keeps you from accomplishing because it traps you in a box in your mind and limits your freedom to deliver."

"I believed that anything was possible, or at least because I didn't put together everyone else's "facts" and believe that winning was impossible."

"Endurance is mind over matter."

"I don't have a "you can't do this" voice in my head."

"The engaged mind stays sharp and retains tremendous capacity."

"You have to give up some of the old so that you can make room for the new."

"These changes are part of what keeps me interested and excited. Life won't let me keep coming at it from the same angle."

"If my music can change someone's mood for the better even a little bit, that's amazing."

"I was tough on myself because I feared being a lazy procrastinator and the inevitable result: being mediocre or second best. I always went the extra mile."

"I'd decided to take the risk, and either I'd succeed or else."

"Taking responsibility gives me a sense of control."

"I think we have much more to say about what happens to us than most people believe."

"It's a cliché - but true - that life is not a dress rehearsal. You get to do it once, so do it well."

"It seems that in every culture, however tough life is and however impossible the conditions, there are some resilient human beings who find their way through, who survive and make something of themselves."

"All I had to do was do it."

"I've always lived in the moment."

"Being happy with less is what makes a great human being, not a big house with marble floors, or everyone knowing who you are."

"Nobody could believe in me the way I believed in myself."

"Focused will is incredible. If you have a dream and you don't give up no matter what obstacles come up, then life's problems will fall away and you will get what you want. It happens. It works."

"We're all capable if we have faith and passion."

"My new question was, What do you do when your dreams come true? My answer was: Find new ones."

"On the plane home I remember thinking that I am who I am because I have faith in myself, and it has always been the possibility of emotionally rewarding the experiences that has encouraged me to gamble on myself; those experiences have made all that I do worthwhile."

"Of all the forces that are exerted on us over our lifetime, at least for me, love has been the most powerful of all."

"That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true."

"The more doubt you have, the less likely it is that the creation will come to life."

"I remember a few years ago I was watching this astronaut from the space shuttle, talking about his experiences in space and talking about what earth looked like to him from above."

"Here's three samples, now go and make a record."

"I Think, Therefore I Ambient"

"Live the Dream, Dream the Fish"

"It's time to lie down and be counted."

"We've had 70 years of making records. Now, we sample them."

"I'd rather lie down than jump up."

"The dance industry is flogging a dead house."

"Music is for sharing with people."

"If you're going to make music, you need to find the context in which it might be enjoyed."

"Punk was predicated on non-musicianship."

"Whatever you like at age 16, you will find boring at age 32."

"It is time to reassess what has happened in the 20th century, and to look at it with a longer lens."

"I like the people who go the extra mile to find something more individual, with more integrity, than the stuff you get in the charts."

"Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder affecting so many around the world. Autism is not mental illness, these children and adults think differently. Albert Einstein they say was autistic. How many in the audience know that there are 38,000 autistic people in Sri Lanka? So we as entertainers, urge you all to ‘speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.’ Lets spread awareness of autism, particularly when numbers of autistic children are rising and we urge our government to also provide public services – who knows we may even produce Albert Einsteins if we provide education, health, specialist speech therapy for autistic children in our lovely island...."

"Old rules and habits have to be rejected and dismissed so that something new can be created."

"I started writing hits the day I sold my piano."

"My style is too developed to be arrested It's the freestyle, so now it's out on parole They tried to hold my soul in a holding cell so I would sell but I bonded with a break and had enough to make bail"

"But once the man got you well he altered the native Told her if she got an image and a gimmick That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy Now I see her in commercials, she's universal She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle Now she be in the burbs lickin' rock and dressin' hip And on some dumb shit"

"I fight, with myself in the ring of doubt and fear The rain ain't gone, but I can still see clear As a child, given religion with no answer to why Just told believe in Jesus cause for me he did die Curiosity killed the catechism Understanding and wisdom became the rhythm that I played to And became a slave to master self A rich man is one with knowledge, happiness and his health My mind had dealt with the books of Zen, Tao the lessons of the Koran and Bible, to me they all vital And got truth within 'em, gotta read them boys You just can't skim 'em, different branches of belief But one root that stem 'em, but people of the venom try to trim 'em And use religion as an emblem When it should be a natural way of life Who am I or they to say to whom you pray ain't right? That's who got you doin' right and got you this far Whether you say "in Jesus name" or "Al hum du'Allah" Long as you know it's a being that's supreme to you You let that show towards others in the things you do Cause when the trumpets blowin', 24 elders surround the throne Only 144,000 gon get home"

"Granted we known each other for some time but it don't take a whole day to recognize sunshine"

"The revolution will not be televised The revolution is here"

"The perseverence of a rebel, I drop heavier levels of unseen or heard, a king with words Can't knock the hustle, but I've seen street dreams deferred Dark spots in my mind where the scene occurred Some say I'm too deep, but I'm in too deep to sleep"

"I'm the truth, across the table from corporate lies Immortilized by the realness I bring to it If revolution had a movie I'd be theme music My music, you can either fight, fuck, or dream to it"

"This industry will make you lose intensity"

"Cause federal and state was built for a black fate Her emptiness was filled with beatings and court dates They fabricated cases, hoping one would stick And said she robbed places that didn't exist In the midst of threats on her life and being caged with Aryan whites Through dark halls of hate she carried the light"

"The chosen one from the land of the frozen sun, where drunk nights get remembered more than sober ones"

"Never looking back, or too far in front of me. The present is a gift, and I just wanna be."

"We got arms but wont reach for the skies"

"Be the author of your own horoscope"

"We write songs about wrong cause its hard to see right"

"I look into my daughter's eyes. And realize that I'ma learn through her. The Messiah, might even return through her. If I'ma do it, I gotta change the world through her"

"Yo...on the amen, corner I stood lookin' at my former hood Felt the spirit in the wind, knew my friend was gone for good Threw dirt on the casket, the hurt, I couldn't mask it Mixin down emotions, struggle I hadn't mastered I choreographed seven steps to heaven and hell, waiting to exhale and make the bread leavened Veteran of a cold war its Chica-i-go for What I know or, whats known"

"Tried to call, or at least beep the lord, but didn't have a touch-tone"

"Let the truth be told from young souls that become old From days spent in the jungle, where must one go To find it, time is real, we can't rewind it Out of everybody I met, who told the truth? Time did"

"Took a picture of the truth and tried to develop it Had proof, but it was only recognized by the intelligent Took the negative and positive, cause niggas got to live Said I got to get more than I'm given Cause truth'll never be heard in religion After searching the world, on the inside what was hidden?It was the truth"

"This is street rad-i-o, For unsung hero, Driving in the regal, trying to stay legal, My daughter found Nemo, I found the new primo, Yeah, you know how we do, we do it for the people.""

"I think and speak clearer since I cut the dairy out. I can breathe better and perform at a better rate, and my voice is clearer. I can explore different things with my voice that I couldn’t do because of my meat and dairy ingestion. I am proud and blessed to be a vegetarian, everything became clear."

"I went to the movies — it was Kanye, myself and John Mayer, and we went to see "Ray." We were watching it, and I was just inspired by the movie, just as a musician and as an artist, I felt inspired. We left there and went straight to the studio. Kanye started cooking up this beat and started doing this chant, like, "Go, go, go," and while we were sitting there thinking what to write, John Mayer said, "You could write about your fantasy." And I was like, "Am I going to let John Mayer come up with the concept for this joint? This is hip-hop." But John Mayer is a very talented brother and you don't know where your blessings are going to come from. He was singing, and we made him a sample on it, going 'Go.' So it all came together and now we have the song 'Go!,' which is about going to my fantasy."

"Recently, John and I got to go to Selma and perform “Glory” on the same bridge that Dr. King and the people of the civil rights movement marched on 50 years ago. This bridge was once a landmark of a divided nation, but now is a symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social status. The spirit of this bridge connects the kid from the South Side of Chicago, dreaming of a better life, to those in France standing up for their freedom of expression, to the people in Hong Kong protesting for democracy. This bridge was built on hope, welded with compassion, and elevated by love for all human beings."

"He's utterly melodic and hopelessly romantic, and when he performs live, he robs the air from your lungs. Oh, and he's devoid of any charisma or star power whatsoever."

"Teitur Lassen speaks for the broken-hearted, who, for the most part, may be too timid to speak for themselves. His first effort is shamelessly honest and hints at very beautiful things to come."

"The trees creak with their arthritic arms / brittle in their powederd bark / this year took ten years to / tell me that I'm alone again"

"If it's sad / you know it's true / God is glad on bluer moons / When your room is all you do / it comes to you"

"We put a monkey up in space / and I know exactly how he felt / looking at a lattice work of stars / missing his brothers back home too much for a postcard"

"Turtle on its back in the desert sea / and you look like a cool drink / just slightly out of reach / Draw myself into the shell / waiting on a sign from God / or a nod from hell"

"Be a believer / Believe everything / You'll be right half the time"

"Everyone tells me they're crazy / Crazy people aren't so fucking boring / Wake me when you're through being cool 'cause I'm snoring"

"You don't know what I'm all about / Like killing cops and reading Kerouac"

"Put my ear to the door / I just heard gunshots and hot rods and sirensPeople kill me these days / There's keys in their eyes but they lock from the inside"

"The records I end up liking I don't like right off the bat. I want to call our next record Tenth Listen. That's the test."

""Songs are like flowers / they come up spontaneously / they are like dreams / and we only have to / write them quickly / because then they fade away / and we will not remember them"'"

"Take God here / I have to talk to him / I want to tell him / about a life I have lived / and which I haven't understood / what it has been worth living / what has changed / or better / what have I earned?"

""What I wouldn't give / to live a fable!" (from Vivere una favola, 1988)"

""Better to die because of you, rather than dying still!" (from Domani si adesso no, 1985)"

""Imagine that it is always Sunday / you always free / and your mother less nevrotic" (from T'immagini, 1988)"

""I don't sit here / I want to live above / I want to live just once!" (from Brava Giulia, 1987)"

""Life is a shiver that flies away / it's all a balance on madness" (from Sally, 1996)"

""And every time evening comes back..." (from Ogni volta, 1982)"

""Look what nice surprise life is / that someday you wake up and it's over / and it will never come back again" (from Ci Credi, 1993)"

""But if armies turn / an heroes disappear / if it's us now / who start making war / don't smile, the shoots above / are for you!" (from Gli Spari Sopra, 1993)"

""Stars in the sky / and dreams are few / the ones who come true" (from Ridere di te, 1987)"

""And... / If you need me / and can't find me / search for me in a dream" (from E..., 2004)"

""It's only us... / Generation of upset people / Without Saints or Heroes... / It's only us..."

""Yeah, it's me / three different men / one it's not me / the other ones are lost..." (from Senorita, 2004)"

""And life goes on / even without us / who are far by now" (da Anima Fragile, 1980)"

""When you reach the bottom / you'll go up / you'll come up / or you won't come anymore" (from Che cosa c'è, 1985)"

""Thank Heaven who gave us the woman!" (concert in Florence, june 2005)"

""And now that I've arrived here thanks to my dreams / what should I do with reality? / And now that I don't even have my illusions / I don't even care about truth". (from E adesso tocca a me, 2008)"

"Each of us is special In our own unique way."

"Eyes like yours, always looking for outlines, Eyes like mine, always looking for yours."

"And like a falcon spying a dove I swoop down on you death from above And like a panther out in the wood I sneak up on you so light of foot."

"Tendencies like these have been reported But no direct link has yet been proven This is how you join two humans."

"Imagine you’re driving On pristine new roads Let’s climb down from trees Emerge from the river Let’s vacate the beaches Of far distant shores Emerge from the blackness Into the blue, blue, blue, blue day."

"I don't think the music is all that different, actually. It is produced and presented in a different way. I don't favour one type of music over another. I like music that is melodic, so I like what I am doing now. I haven't abandoned guitars, I am just a little less angry than I was then. I am still proud of Eve's Plum, and I think they could be Vitamin C songs, and some Vitamin C songs could be Eve's Plum songs. I really like this one, it is the best one of all."

"It was great, I love onions!"

"It's not as if I went from hardcore punk to four-on-the-floor dance music. I always considered the songs I've written to be intelligent pop songs and perhaps just the production that varies but it's still very much the same voice."

"I'm better suited to doing this because I enjoy dancing and performing, so I can incorporate a whole bunch of different elements of my personality into the performance component of Vitamin C and it turns out, without trying, there was a certain positive spirit and strong point of view [in the songs] that fairly well represented my personality. So it all came together quite nicely."

"I decided that instead of replacing members of Eve's Plum and keeping it going against some internal and external odds, I would continue doing music, but do it by myself," explains Fitzpatrick. "But it took me a little while because I wasn't sure I was really ready emotionally and mentally to jump back into the fire immediately."

"You get treated better [laugh], Being a girl about town is different from being a girl with five guys about town."

""The Itch" was an accident. I responded to [co-writer] Billy Steinberg's lyric because I thought even though we set it in this particular story of a girl in a relationship who isn't getting what she needs, it's really a metaphor for desire. Everything just coincided without my realizing it. I was playing Lucy in Dracula 2000, and she's a character who is totally open, sexual and curious and definitely has "The Itch" on many different levels. And it was just coincidence that all this stuff kind of like came together for me. Because I get the itch all the time. And to me that really means something."

"You know that weird cat dance that cats do late at night where they go completely stir-crazy and they run around the apartment and you don't know what the hell they're doing? I often feel like that. I dye my hair constantly because I can't sit still with one hair color. That's a perfect example of trying to satisfy some hunger. I want change; I want constant stimuli. I love to fly because I love the high. All of these are like itch kind of things. Sometimes I need to completely get away. I'll get in the car and I'll drive for as long as I can drive. Sometimes it's a sexual urge. I don't need to explain that; it's pretty self-explanatory. It's a craving, a desire. Sometimes it's food. I'm just a giant, big ol' consumer. I want, I need, I crave, I can't say no. I have no control and I'm a complete control freak. It's just crazy [laughs]."

"I'm not quite sure that I know how they complement each other, because I use them for the opposite reason. I find music to be an intensely personal kind of thing, perhaps it's because I write a lot of the stuff. I use acting to escape from being me, and I use music to explore being me. I think that's the best way to put it."

"I haven't found it difficult because I find this very enjoyable. It's really challenging. And I'm really proud of the record because it's a really good record. There's nothing harder than to write a pop record with meaning. I think it's much easier to be alternative. It's much easier to be different and take a different path outside of a commercial context. To try and write a pop song that is not cliché, to try and write a pop song that has meaning and fits in under three minutes and five seconds and has a hook that people want to listen to is the most difficult thing in the world to do. So in lieu of that you have to write what you know and what you like, what you're feeling. That's all I can basically do. I don't begrudge the other people that don't write their songs. And I don't judge them. I'd like to see more people writing their own songs, because that's just personally what I like. Just for me, as an artist, so many people only care about being popular right now. Whatever happened to trying to write a song that means something? When I was growing up, artists meant something. They had opinions, they looked different than the person working at the store on your street. They opened your eyes and taught you something about life. And I would like to aspire to be that kind of artist."

"I learned I'm not the kind of artist that can just sing someone else's songs, for a lot of reasons. I have to have some sort of understanding of the song, or some sort of attachment to it."

"The genius of Jamie is NOT that she wrote the lyrics on her hands, but that she didn't think we'd notice"

"Like any great performer, Rosa pulls you in, and I found myself leaning forward, and really paying attention...but most of all, trying to figure out what the HELL she was saying"

"Just like you I am a wanderer Wandering, wondering Outrunning all my previous lives So cleave to me just like a tiny storm A raining and a thundering Coming out of clear blue skies - "All I Know""

"There were many guests at the table Misfortune, jealousy, and sloth Acting fine, drink the wine Spill it on the tablecloth - "Feast""

"And she beckons to you with her fingers and lies She says: can't you slice the price of your paradise. ~ A Month of Sundays"

"Like a womb, the night was all around ~ Disappear"

"Ugliness you have to know, beauty you can't teach ~ Disappear"

"You stare down at some crowd from your trapeze And when you fell they fell down on their knees And when you broke they scrambled for a piece And when you spoke I felt their anger freeze. ~ Metropolis"

"I paid eighty dollars for this wedding ring, I couldn't take it off if I tried... ~ Hotel Womb"

"She put her foot down on the oscillation pedal, she was a transdimensional speeder... ~ Terra Nova Cain"

"The pines smell sweet in the frozen air, and their silhoutte's just fading there, the wolves crouch close, against the snow but where we're running I don't know, In villages and soft sad towns the candles sway as night comes down, cold bones creak and strange beasts cry, watching shadows in the sky... All I have, all I need, all I got.....is providence. ~ Providence"

"On this very spot a great city once stood, It oozed with evil but it felt so good... ~ City"

"It's never as good as I hoped or as bad as I feared ~ Into My Hands"

"In the space between our houses some bones have been discovered but our procession lurches on as if we have recovered... ~ Destination"

"Great cities, or the endless beautiful plains stretched out before his jaded gaze and disappeared into the nothingness of his feeling. ~ Fall in Love"

"Follow her down to worship some god Who never speaks to me, I wonder if that's odd Then he says you're never listening. ~ Lost"

"The universe is female Eluding the science of men You sway and you swagger with your neat little dagger You're gonna blow it again .... I'll prove her existence in everything The soul of her rivers and stones Her acquiescence in everything Her essence, her presence, her bones. ~ Essence"

"The world keeps spinning, people keep sinning all the rest is just bullshit. ~ Authority"

"You can't be a lover if you want to keep on using What are you using that's stronger than the love Sometimes I'm knocked out by the damage that you're doing Knocked out, locked out, push comes to shove Listen to the wind tearing at the windows Watching how the white moon melts into the cloud Important little tyrants, impotent little pharaohs Men/man of sorrows lost into the crowd ~ Richochet"

"Sometimes I wander under prehistoric skys Here she comes with a penetrating stare cold desert stars feel and sparkle like frost, they are so lost his seed of adulation is your butter and your bread, it's an exquisite corpse and its lips are red If you're alone and you're feeling blue, everyone in Persia probably feels like you do. ~ Lost"

"Why are those buildings swaying like trees? ~ Hotel Womb"

"Close to you, hear all you say Even though you're continents away ~ It Doesn't Change"

"I've got a nickname for you, I call you weakness I get a little strength out too, or is it meekness ~ Paradox"

"Everything is going wrong All my songs are coming true ~ Mistress"

"Inside the car sat a sulky blonde And on her lap the road went on and on As she dresses I look to the ground Perhaps I know where the place can be found, and on ~ The Night is Very Soft"

"Beyond that void is a place Where figments from bad dreams are banished Childhood nightmares all come seeking And adult logic nearly vanished ~ Chaos"

"Our instruments have no way of measuring this feeling Had ever got below the floor Or penetrate the ceiling ~ Destination"

"So now we're cruisin' down this shuddering highway with the dead sun shining on my back. ~ Myrrh"

"Loving, we've been loving, but sometimes hate is better You can't keep out the killers with love, man Hating, we've been hating, but only love can heal up the hate ~ Nightfriends"

"I’m an insomniac, my mind works the night shift."

"Whenever you say that homophobia is stupid, you just get called gay."

"When I said that I make out with dudes, there was a slight sense of sexual rebellion in that. And I probably even made it a bigger deal than it was."

"I have a bit of a consummate victim in my head. That’s who I identify with throughout history. When I was 10 I would draw black eyes on myself because I thought it was cool. You’re so into people who are tragic. You want to be that so badly. But you probably aren’t really the tragic genius that you think you are."

"Our culture bombards us with this idea that you’re not that, and if you are that, there’s something wrong with you, and then we’re going to call you that, and then it’s an insult. There is a sense of self-empowerment or recapturing who you are by people calling you ‘fag,’ and being like, ‘Yeah, I am a fag.’ Even though you’re not. What does somebody respond? That dude has nothing to say about that again."

"Being ambiguously flamboyant really does help. I’ve had so many people come up to me and be like, ‘I felt OK to come out of the closet after you said this.’ When someone says that to me -- it’s not an event I’ve ever been through, so I don’t know what to compare it to. I don’t think I even understand how important that is to someone’s life."

"Q: X-ray vision or bionic hearing? A: It's easy to hear people talking shit. I'd rather check out Patrick in his boxers with little heart prints on 'em. So vision I guess."

"Q: Will Fall Out Boy ever become Fall Out Man? A: The chest hair is in the mail. So hopefully we will in four to six weeks. depending on shipping."

"Our eyes have seen the skies burning red, Angels singing, voices full of dread, We see the lies but never ask why? The seeds of sorrow the blood they cry."

"I've seen this before yeah I've been there too, This aint for me..not what I want, I've loved honestly and it always hurts, Can't feel this no more..it's gotta be true."

"I knew you are, Just like an angel sent from above, In your embrace, You give me more than, I could ever dream of."

"Hurts so bad that you know it's not sinning. The funny thing is it's just beginning to feel good."

"If you stay sober, I'll put the kettle on. And you can come over, drink tea, and watch the lawn."

"It's like a dream I had: this girl I went to see (and I can't sing her name, she might be listening to me), in a room of missing tiles we felt ourselves entwine, and she bit my tongue and shouted as I crawled into her mind."

"People got no respect for the dead; they roll new plans out neatly."

"Everybody makes mistakes - some do most of all. "I just don’t have what it takes," they’re singing as they fall."

"If I told you once, then I told you twice That I would have paid just about any price Just to see him jump, just to see him laugh I would have washed in the blood of an innocent man."

"You're like a convert who goes back to work When he can't retrieve how the clarity actually felt When his co-workers ask him, the words won't come out And after three weeks, his new leaf has blown away And it feels just like an average day Facing walls, talking into the phone Sitting dumbly in church all alone Picking back up the magazines he'd thrown away."

"Claire lives up on Saint Mary's walk, with her mother. And I live down on Philomel, by the harbor And I hate the ocean."

"And I'll clasp my hands And I'll make demands At the clouds, they're asking "What's wrong with him now?""

"God, take that sound away If you've got something to say Say it now. It's fake, and I need you not to be fake And don't care how you make me feel Just so you're real."

"We will stand in the waves while the colors all run, and our minds fill with light until we start to go numb."

"Only in America could you find a way to make a healthy buck And still keep your attitude on self-destruct."

"This just in: they ain't even worth the worry Lying on their first birth and couldn't even hurt a Smurfberry Hear ye, hear ye! How dare ye Go up against the king who do his thing tri-yearly? They're too carefree with their mouths around here Off with his head, and display it at Town Square"

"Type to just blank and don't show much pitty When I'm in the city I always keep a dutch with me Touch her titty till she ask me where the trees is at Or tell me don't squeeze that rats wanna tease a cat"

"The way a lotta dudes rhyme their name should be 'knob shiner' For a buck, they'd likely dance the Jig or do the Hucklebuck To Vik it's no big deal, they're just a buncha knuckle-fucks."

"Confirmation of your worse fears Ever since his first years had a thirst for beers."

"Remember me God? clean Timbs with emery board' he only came to save the game like a memory card ooh shrewd, alot of crews is too rude and it's way too many 'let's not and say we do'-dudeshe said 24-7 I be on call he use his vacation days to watch Babylon fall"

"But back at the lab he found the sleestack was right Not only was it three cracks of light between white The test show lactose, ambisol, lecithin Five types of aspirin and other kinds of medicines."

"That's for him to know, for they to never find out About the kidnap, blind fold, and the blind mouse The coroner report say he simply signed out, oh and I know Y'all wanna see a wine-o? bring the wine out Cat wit a dead mouse is how he catch the phrase and, pause, plays wit it Kill it, and eat off it for days, kid it"

"Listen up, new drink, named it after Chong's daughter triple shot of 'gac, with the chaser of bong water V a strong supporter come on, bring the slaughter."

"Great balls of fire, guess who just crawled out the mud the mire That could make you trust a motherfuckin' liar A real shuck n' jiver, Vaughn never been a duck n diver He spit on the mic, yuck, saliva Hold it like a drunk driver hold a CB on a sharp turn Still clutchin' his chest from the heartburn What's your handle? I need a Zantac, ock and thanks before I blank into anyphylactic shock""

"Stick 'em up chump, you know what this is do the right thing you might live to see your kids all he said was 'c'mon don't shoot!' so shook I think he shit his sean jean suit 'why you starin?' run your chain like an errand and your girls earrings, and what you wearin' survival tactics for when things get too gritty he feels it's his duty to the people of the city just so long as nobody get hurt it keep your average citizen on point and alert" 'ok miss, come up off that bracelet just got your hair did don't make me waste it' so, go to hades get the devil for his stash but no old ladies unless you're sure they carry mad cash like the one from the liquor store he watched her for weeks now, ready for the quick score before he told her whore get on the floor she pulled out and let off like quick draw mcgraw damn yo, he lucky, she barely nicked the camo he would've let her have it, if he had the ammo it's all in good fun, true, moral of the story, son duke: senior citizens'll bust their guns too"

"(How far?) The distance was light-speed He went to see a buddy who said he had some white weed In case it might need, it didn't mean much For in his lean clutch was the elusive green Dutch"

"One day, he plan to put in a runway With enough land for his own projects and gun play Section 8 penthouse, maid look like Faye Dunaway Alotta y'all assed out like gay runaways" ...Gooey gum drops, who he got his style from, his pops? you gotta give the bum some props ask ya sister, her beat box is more thicker Doom, that nigga detox with malt liquor Villain for hire, admire the sound Make sure The Price Is Right before he come on down!" ...The way alotta clowns get down is unnatural This flows flipped like 'oranges, apples' Rhymes like limes to a Lemonade Snapple Leave her at the chapel, don't eat Scrapple"

"Tripping off the beat kinda, dripping off the meat grinder Heat niner, pimping, stripping, soft street minor China was a neat sign of trouble with a script, digits Double dip/bubble lips, subtle lisp midget Borderline schizo, sort of fine tits though Pour the wine, hold the grind, quarter to nine, let's go"

"Do not stand still, both show skills Close but no crills, toast for po' ills, post no bills Coast to coast Joe Shmoes flows ill, go chill Not supposed to overdose, no 'doz pills"

"The mask is like Jason They told the place not to let the basket type case in He could be some kind of wacko Waiting for the chance to heat the pipes like a crack hoe"

"If I had a dime for every rhymer that bust guns I'll have a cool mil' for my sons in trust funds"

"What up? To all rappers, shut up with your shutting-up and keep a shirt on, at least a button up. Yuck. Is they rhymers or stripping males? Out of work jerks since they shut down Chippendale's."

"What we have here is a failure to communicate If you gonna hate, might at least get your rumors straight about Doom the Great, a lot more confident Came a long way since the days we had to rhyme for rent It was time well spent, vented Spelt and dented, hell-bented and heaven-scented"

"Looked like Apollo Creed after he fought with Rocky Rhymed in a broken english slang, not cockney Thirteen, his first queen wore hot knock knees Had to tell her pops, yo stop cockblockin B"

"I stand in the blistering heat as the epitome of the anti-hero Stitchin' up my injuries and flippin' imagery , mixing toxins 'til I'm lost in the synergy"

"I hibernate through the winter and wait for the summer madness Stout on my breath and a bad case of desert mouth."

"Son of the Devil, I turn wine into water"

"Believe me I bleed on the vinyl and CD"

"Gazelle accelerate away from my Puma shoes, it's like Noah's Ark, embarking two by two"

"Selling eighths to an eighth of the population, giving them a proper education Teeth chatter when I walk past hearts of glass... shatter, I shape planets out of dark matter"

"All rock and roll is homosexual, yes it is."

"All the other stuff - the socialising and drinking and stuff that people say are important parts of university because it teaches you social skills - is fucking nonsense, because you learn that at infant school or comprehensive. Or at least, you're meant to. I think if I'd been able to have a flat of my own it would have been very different because I've never been very good with very many different people. I've always surrounded myself with just a very few people. To hole myself up in a tower block with hundreds of people I had nothing in common with was a really bad experience."

"Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair."

"In terms of the 'S' word, that does not enter my mind. And it never has done. In terms of An Attempt. Because I am stronger than that. I might be a weak person, but I can take pain."

"...the women are as bored as the men, but the men will go out to the pub and beat the shit out of everyone else; the women will stay at home and concentrate on surviving."

"That movie about Cazuza looks like an episode of Malhação. The 1980s rock music was junk."

"Lula is not, and never was, fit to be a president."

"Gil can't be a minister and, at the same time, work for a record company. It's the same as if the president of FED was an executive of BankBoston."

"They are laundry detergents who sing."

"It is better to live ten years at a thousand [miles per hour] than a thousand years at a ten"

"I started to see human beings as little lonesome, water based, pink meat, life forms pushing air through themselves and making noises that the other little pieces of meat seemed to understand. I was thinking to myself, 'There's five billion people here but we've never been more isolated.' The only result of the aggressive individualism we pursue is that you lose sight of your compassion and we go to bed at night thinking, 'Is this all there is?' because we don't feel fulfilled."

"Can you imagine a fulfilled society? Whoa, what would everyone do?"

"I want the ability to do whatever I want without a whole fleet of lawyers and record companies analyzing it and telling me what to do. It's like the success of doing it that way doesn't mean enough to me as an artist or a person for me to fight about it. I'm not going to fight anymore I'm just going to do it the way I want to do it. Why am I going to do it that way and be so obstinate? Because I don't care enough about it to spend that much time on it."

"I think I have more of a fear of success. I want to have a good time, I want to hang out with my friends and laugh about shit, I want to make music where I can just say 'Hey, check this out, this is crazy, have a listen…and anyway, what did you do today?'"

"The thing with the STRAPPING thing is that, it might sound cheesy but whatever I say I'm going to do I'm going to do. I told them I'd do five records — I did five records. At the end of it they offered us this big deal, we'll re-sign you, we've got all these big bands that'll take you out on the road now. I just said 'I'm done, I told you, I'm done.' There's a good chance that if it hadn't gone to the level that it has then we might be doing it still."

"I suck dick for crack money!"

"Did you see my spread in Playgirl? I spread like a motherfucker!"

"Universities are turning out thousands of reporters. They are quite bright and they don't have to rhyme."

"When I'm pining for a cigarette, I think of all the free ones that I'd get, if I killed myself and came back as a beagle, WOOF!"

"Mention The Lord of the Rings just once more, and I'll more than likely kill you."

"Brian Moore's head looks uncannily like London Planetarium."

"There was one in the gang who had Scalextric, and because of that he thought he was better than you."

"There's no room for enigmas in built-up areas."

"I could put a tennis racket up against my face and pretend that I am Kendo Nagasaki."

"There's people who can't spell 'weird' right driving round with thousands in the bank; but I get by, got a lot on my mind; I get by, got allotments on my mind."

"The three men I admire most -- the father, son, and Mickie Most -- took the last train for the coast, and rendezvoused with Peter Glaze, to kill Don Maclean."

"I know Bono and he knows Ono, she knows Eno whose phone goes thus: "Brian's not home, he's at the North Pole, but if you'd like to leave a weird noise...""

"She died with her telly on, 87 and confused, With not enough hospital beds 'cos all the money’s been used, On the end of the century party preparations, And they reckon that the last thing she saw in her life, Was Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican."

"No frills, handy for the hills, that's the way you spell New Mills."

"I'm off to see The Bootleg Beatles as the bootleg Mark Chapman."

"Car crime's low, the gun crime's lower, The town hall band CD, it's a grower, You never hear of folk getting knocked on the bonce, Although there was a drive-by shouting once, But there's a brass band everywhere, And I don't drive so I don't care, And as a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, What's Chatteris if you're not there?"

"Help me Mrs Medlicott, I don't know what to do, I've only got three bullets and there's four of Mötley Crüe."

"There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets."

"Command & Conquer is very much a part of what my style...was founded on, combining the various elements of rock, electronic, hip-hop, and contemporary edge with some orchestral and some what-not—it comes down to not having limitations on what it is you can do, and when you have a project like this that allows you that freedom and that creativity to thrive, you can really take advantage...I think the biggest difference now is, imagine my mindset and the way I was thinking and writing when Command & Conquer first came out, and add about fifteen years experience to that—I think that's what you can expect from Universe at War."

"Metal is back. (concerning the music for the Hierarchy faction of Universe at War: Earth Assault)"

"The first song I ever wrote back then was the song that landed me the job as composer at Westwood Studios, which was remarkable for me at the time. It was basically an acoustic guitar song with electric guitar leads and keyboard strings, and raining sound effects in the background. If I had to compare it to anything, it was probably similar to an interlude Queensryche song. I never released this song before, but I've recently been thinking about re-recording it with the experience I have now and really making it sound proper. Maybe one day."

"(When asked what shaped his musical preferences) That comes from many directions. My parents, relatives, and friends shaped a good part of that, and whatever I heard on the radio and mtv growing up (back when MTV was actually a music channel instead of a teenage reality show channel) and movies I loved, just wherever it came from that exposed me to it I would weed out quickly what I did and didn't care for. My music tastes have always been diverse, though I tried to kid myself at certain times that I only like this or that, no matter what everything I ever liked has still stuck with me so I learned to embrace that and not close myself off to things."

"(When asked about his Westwood experiences) Westwood was a fantastic place to work, with great people, great games we created, and we all really loved what we did. We were passionate about it. I have so many great memories there, and the ironic thing is I actually regret not having attended more of the fun company functions and parties while I was instead playing club gigs with bands with the mentality of trying to get signed or discovered. Granted thats the kind of thing you try for when you're young, but it took awhile to sink in, that my real future and career was already under my nose. Lots of funny stuff happened. Office pranks, fun extra content we created, certain personalities that always made you laugh. Just all of life's experiences along the way whether it was staying in an awful hotel on a business trip, or trying to set-up an embarrassed co-worker with a date, it's all great stuff you can laugh about later. When Westwood closed it was truly the end of an era, but in a way it has been resurrected at Petroglyph where I am now. Half the company are old Westwood employees and although it's a different time in the industry, we are all thankful to still be working together and making the best games we can."

"(When asked about pop music) Pop music has become the largest farce in music history. It is soul-less, mechanical, and only made for the sole purpose of making the fastest dollar possible, with more emphasis on imagery than the music. I would much rather remain an independent recording artist who can dictate his own creativity and make it available to a smaller community of fans then sign with a major label under conditions of compromising my work just to sell lunch boxes and sound like every other thing out there. The only artists that have any longevity are the ones that pioneer a movement not follow a movement. The hundreds of following wannabes always get left in the dust or remain one-hit-wonders."

"(When asked about gaming) I have a few favorites: Stand-up arcade game - 720 degrees, RTS - Command & Conquer & Star Wars Empire at War, FPS - Unreal Tournament 2004. As far as RPGs, I prefer good old D&D on paper for that. The game industry is as strong as the music and film industry now, and crosses over into both as well. I still play all the games I just mentioned every now and again. I find it intriguing that retro-gaming has come back in a big way. All the old arcade games from the 80s seem to have found their way back in the form of built in joysticks that plug into TVs. Xbox360 has live arcade downloads, the Wii has classic Nintendo and Turbo Graphix downloads, it's very interesting. I think people are recognizing once again that simple short fun experiences are just as good as having long huge production experiences. Theres something out there for everyone, and gaming is as much for adults as it is for kids. I love variety in gaming. For a good while there was too much of the same types of games year after year, and it feels like we're seeing more creativity again, which is a good thing."

"(When asked to reflect on his career) Music is the emotion of the experience. Regarding whether someone knows composers by name, it comes down to how much the music had touched someone that they then care enough to find out who composed it. Myself as an example, I get a dozen or so fan emails every single day, from all over the globe. Most of the time it's new people that are just now figuring out who I am after all their years of playing games I've done, and that I composed some of their favorite game music or just their favorite game in particular. And it never gets old even though I've been reading them and answering them ever since I launched my website www.frankklepacki.com about seven years ago. You can't beat knowing you've had that kind of impact on people on a regular basis. I am always very grateful for it. Some of my fans cared enough to spread the word about my career that they made a full feature article on Wikipedia. That blew me away!"

"(Continued) The ironic thing is that my original goal in life was to be in a famous band, tour the world and sell millions of albums. Although that didn't quite happen, I got something else just as gratifying. Instead of being in a famous band, I gained some fame in the industry as a game composer. Instead of touring the world, I receive fan mail from around the world. Instead of selling millions of albums, my music is on millions of games! And I sell enough of my own albums that allows me to keep releasing them. So in a different way, I kind of got what I wanted after all. And I'm more than happy with that. The most fulfilling part of it is that I feel I contributed something that mattered to a significant number of people, and more importantly, I got to be a part of projects that mattered a lot to my life personally, like Star Wars!"

"I can tell you how I feel about you night and day."

"I think of the Ramones when I think of music that can save your life, but I’m not so sure about a band like Fall Out Boy who appears to make music in vein or that, at least, doesn’t sound like something they would die for."

"I love the intimacy of small venues, I really do, I like that look that people have that they feel like they're special and they can hear and they can see the band as well."

"It's quite spiky, quite dramatic, theatrical rock 'n' roll really."

"I love dressing up. I’m from a huge African family and grew up in a really colorful place. The way I dress reflects my environment and wanting to take people into a fantasy world for half an hour."

"Arctic Monkeys are a great band, but bands like that sometimes spend a lot of time reminding people about the shitiness of reality. I don’t want to sing for half an hour, reminding people about how shit Sheffield is — unless it’s for one verse or a joke."

"We are able to speak for ourselves through our music rather than being defined and put into the spotlight in a very male kind of groomed way for an obviously predominantly male audience."

"When someone like Kurt Cobain or Jack White comes out, they didn’t go, “He sounds just like Muddy Waters,” did they? They just said, “He’s great, he sounds like him.” When women come out and men write about them, they tend to write about them in a way that other men can understand, which sometimes can seem a bit patronizing."

"We're just going to play the hell out of it until they can't take it anymore."

"Well, my mom told me she saw me coming out of an aircraft and..."

"I care not for these ladies, That must be wooed and prayed; Give me kind Amaryllis, The wanton country maid. Nature art disdaineth; Her beauty is her own."

"Plead, Sleep, my cause, and make her soft like thee, That she in peace may wake and pity me."

"Shall I come, sweet Love, to thee, When the ev'ning beams are set?"

"The man whose silent days In harmless joys are spent, Whom hopes cannot delude, Nor sorrow discontent:That man needs neither towers Nor armour for defence, Nor secret vaults to fly From thunder's violence."

"There is a garden in her face Where roses and white lilies blow; A heavenly paradise is that place, Wherein all pleasant fruits do grow; There cherries grow that none may buy, Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry."

"Blow up the scenery, I reign supremer, see You need a savior to save ya, so lean on me"

"I’m the authentic poet to get lyrical For you to beat me, it’s gonna take a miracle."

"Rappers stepping to me they want to get some But I’m the Kane, so yo, you know the outcome Another victory They can’t get with me So pick a BC date cause you’re history"

"To me, Big Daddy Kane is still today one of the best rappers. I would put Big Daddy Kane against any rapper in a battle. Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, any of them. I actually met Jay-Z with Kane. Kane brought Jay-Z over to my house. But nobody wants to see Kane. I could take 'Raw' right now and put it up against any record [from today]. Kane is one of the most incredible lyricists, the most real cat if you ever get a chance to meet him. Straight out of Brooklyn, soft-spoken and he will devour you on the mic. I don't want to try to out-rap Big Daddy Kane. I may out-dress him, but I'm not gonna try to out-rap him. Big Daddy Kane can rap circles around cats."

"Datemi il conto della lavandaia e vi metterò in musica anche quello."

"Je le prends deux fois par semaine, Haydn quatre fois et Mozart tous les jours. Vous me direz, Beethoven est un colosse, qui vous donne souvent des coups de poing dans les côtes, tandisque Mozart est toujours adorable. C'est que lui a eu la chance d'aller très jeune en Italie à un époque, où l'on chantait encore bien."

"Bon Dieu; la voilà terminée, cette pauvre petite messe. Est-ce bien de la musique sacrée que je viens de faire, ou bien de la sacré musique ? J'étais né pour l'opera buffa, tu le sais bien! Peu de science, un peu de coeur, tout est là. Sois donc béni et accorde-moi le Paradis."

"Cette petite composition qui est, hélas, le dernier péché mortel de ma vieillesse."

"Monsieur Wagner a de beaux moments, mais de mauvais quart d'heures."

"Melodia semplice e varietà nel ritmo."

"Aspettate fino alla sera prima del giorno fissato per la rappresentazione. Nessuna cosa eccita più l'estro come la necessità, la presenza d'un copista, che aspetta il vostro lavoro e la ressa d'un impresario in angustie, che si strappa a ciocche i capelli. A tempo mio in Italia tutti gli impresari erano calvi a trent'anni."

"Music is a kind of harmonious language."

"Rossini, in music, is the genius of sheer animal spirits. It is a species as inferior to that of Mozart, as the cleverness of a smart boy is to that of a man of sentiment; but it is genius nevertheless."

"Rossini, divino Maestro, Helios von Italien, der du deine klingenden Strahlen über die Welt verbreitest!"

"His moral deficiencies as an artist were quite extraordinary. When he found the natural superiority of his genius in conflict with the ignorance and frivolity of the public – and the musical ignorance and frivolity of the Venetians and Neapolitans can hardly be overstated – he surrendered without a struggle. Although he was so able a man that it was easier and pleasanter to him to do his work intelligently than to conventionalize it and write down to the popular taste, he never persevered in any innovation that was not well received."

"From Toscanini I learnt the essential and desperate seriousness of making music."

"Everyone says you have to be a specialist, and if you conduct Wagner you cannot conduct Mozart - this is nonsense."

"Fight the tendency to become complacent and do one kind of music - that is the death of a musician."

"In my orchestra, I hate slackness, idle talk and lost time. I always hated this and still hate it. But I can achieve much more when I am quiet and not shouting."

"Between the two men, somewhere, a truth is lying, and that is what I try to find."

"Charlie Rose: What's your favorite symphony in the world now? Sir-"

"Georg Solti: There isn't any. There isn't any for me. This is a question for amateurs. Amateurs have favorite symphonies. A pro never have favorites. The favorite is what I am doing now, today. That's my favorite."

"We had no sooner taken our seats in the railway carriage and the train was beginning to move slowly out of the station when the guard came along the corridor and presented me with my viola! The porter had spotted it, reclining in its case all alone on the platform seat where Lillian and I had been busily engaged in conversation, run along the platform, and thrust it into the hands of the guard through the luggage van window as the train was moving off. Such was my absorption in Lillian that I could even forget the existence of my beloved and precious viola which had meant so much to me for so many years."

"from a tremendously vital white-hot fortissimo down to a trembling, limpid pianissimo so distant that it was difficult to sense whence the mysterious sound could be coming"

"You will be one of the 10% of people out there who are in that bracket because you've succeeded, 90% of people don't live their dream, they talk about it. We've all been in the pub when your mate says 'I'm going to do this' and you go back a year later and he's sitting in the same chair saying the same thing. We've all been there or know someone who's been there."

"Interview "Cosmopolitan Sofia": If there were a fire in your house, what would be the first thing you would take away with you? - I would take away my legs."

"20.02.94, Kyiv, 18:15 a boy from the crowd: - Sofia Mihailovna, how many languages do you speak? - I speak Moldavian, Ukrainian and Russian, but what is important is that we understand each other."

"Replying to Anatolii Kirillovich and Ilya Savelievich to their jokes about Aurica Rotaru during one of the rehearsals in Krasnodar [Russia] ('93): - One more time, one can't here Aurica! - Well, she is echoing in Moldavian... - She is not echoing in Moldavian. I'll show you, khokhols!! Just sing, Aurica. - Well, I am not singing in the beginning... - I'm telling you: sing."

"13.04.95. Kharkiv [Ukraine] speaking to pyrotechnist - about fog on the stage... - Make sure no one can be seen. Myself as well..."

"Interview to the newspaper "Week" [Russian: "Неделя"/Nedelya], 1978: -They say you started singing from the cradle? -Couldn't do it in the cradle: the dummy was in the way."

"Roman Viktyuk: Her destiny on Earth is to be the sun, the light. Her name in Ukrainian is Sonia, Solnyshko ["Sunny" in English]. That is how she is bringing throughout her whole life to people and throws handfuls of light, love and warmth into the concert halls... Sonechka, you know there was no way I would not appear on this stage since two nice parts of Western Ukraine are here. Sonia, Sonechko, there is no "our" or "your" sun, here is Light - Sonechka. Do keep on lighting, remain as tender, beautiful, talented, young as ever. You are unique, thank you Sonia. (Golden Grammy Awards Russia 2006, song "Do Not Love" [Russian: Не люби/Ne lubi)"

"Vladimir Putin: "The art of unique Sofia Rotaru is one of the birghtest pages of modern pop culture. Rare in beauty voice, artistic temper and flawless artistic taste have righteously won You the recognition and love of numerous generations of fans. Your songs come from the very heart an dthat is why they have such a long and happy life." (Russian President has greeted the singer, People's Artist of USSR, S.M.)"

"Alla Pugacheva You have recently been at Rotaru's Anniversary. Is it possible that you will perform in the near future a song in duet with Sofia Mihailovna? - I would like to. However, one cannot hurry us in this. Rotaru is enormously overcharged, myself - as well. But we are dreaming about this already for many many years. And the singers' dreams should come true!"

"I have never been a child prodigy. When I think back to my childhood, I can not discern any sign of future success. My only real talent couldn't be found in any curriculum: whistling."

"In 1956 I was granted the biggest reward of my career: my wife, Josée Jongen."

"Happiness is the moment when one doesn't feel pain."

"[When asked if he has a favorite woodland creature]"

"[When asked if he varies the animals in his comedy depending on where he performs]"

"I think I should be in a [Disney animated] film called ‘Space Shrews’. Where I go to space. With a load of shrews. And nothing really happens. We just get out and have a lolly and then come back. But it’ll be a musical [...] the ship will be built out of my own hair."

"I don’t think I’d have done comedy if I was born eighty years ago [...] I’d have been a lord. Shooting people that were on my land [...] With a wig, yeah. And some crisps."

"[When suggested he could have invented crisps] I couldn’t have invented crisps. [...] I don't really want to be known as the man who invented crisps. [...] I invented apples. [...] I invented pandas, and caps. I invented soil."

"[When asked if he could think of a cure for a dog who eats soil]"

"I had a garter snake named Clayton."

"You must have stuck a finger up your arse at least once."

"In Edinburgh? I quite like the City Cafe. Because you never get served in there. And I like the idea that you can go in there for three hours and still not get your order. I think that’s quite funny. And then when you say ‘Can I have some food - I’m wasting away,’ they have the audacity to tut at you. When there’s only four of you in there. Fuckers. They should all be shot in the face. Sorry. I’m only joking. And I’m really tired."

"[When asked if he used to go onstage dressed as Jesus with a watercolour beard]"

"I used to suck [Smarties] until they were all white, let them dry, and then put them back in the packet and show my mum the Smarties with no colour on them."

"[When asked if he would advocate stalking one's favourite comedian in the hope that one gets to form an award-winning double-act with them and become world famous]"

"[When asked if he sees the future with people wearing shirts with his face on it]"

"I'd like to punch out a really old lady. There'd be no repercussions."

"I've always had my suspicions about moss."

"Why do I always bang my head against the wall So sick and tired of doing, doing everything wrong"

"I thought I'd write you a lovesong And I sang it to you over the phone"

"Tornate all'antico e sarà un progresso."

"Io non posso ammettere, né nei cantanti, né nei direttori la facoltà di creare, che come dissi prima, è un principio che conduce all'abisso."

"Io…vorrei che il giovane quando si mette a scrivere, non pensasse mai ad essere né melodista, né realista, né idealista, né avvenirista, né tutti i diavoli che si portino queste pedanterie. La melodia e l’armonia non devono essere che mezzi nella mano dell'artista per fare della Musica, e se verrà un giorno in cui non si parlerà più né di melodia né di armonia né di scuole tedesche, italiane, né di passato né di avvenire ecc. ecc. ecc. allora forse comincierà il regno dell'arte."

"Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio."

"Si rinunci per moda, per smania di novità, per affettazione di scienza, si rinneghi l'arte nostra, il nostro istinto, quel nostro fare sicuro spontaneo naturale sensibile abbagliante di luce, è assurdo e stupido."

"Gli artisti veramente superiori giudicano senza pregiudizi di scuole, di nazionalità, di tempo. Se gli artisti del Nord e del Sud hanno tendenze diverse, è bene siano diverse."

"Avrai tu l'universo, resti l'Italia a me."

"Giuseppe Verdi was never a theoretician or academic, though he was quite able to write a perfectly poised fugue if he felt inclined. What makes him, with Puccini, the most popular of all opera composers is the ability to dream up glorious melodies with an innate understanding of the human voice, to express himself directly, to understand how the theatre works, and to score with technical brilliance, colour and originality."

"The blind man sits in the dark, but for guests he turns on the light."

"If the Blues were wine, I'd be drunk all the time."

"In Jerusalem, the skies are closer."

"If you count the thorns, the flower disappears."

"If I had plenty, I'd be content with what I have."

"In Jerusalem, even the silence speaks. In Jerusalem, the Skies are Lower"

"Mama Rhino cries out loud, his nose is always the issue, every time he wipes his nose, he rips apart the tissue."

"Words flow under a bridge of silence."

"Rain was the nemesis of the snow, and the snow for the flowers. I Answer as if Someone Really Meant to Ask, Birds of the Mind and Chameleons of the Heart (1978)."

"Dry bones make good flutes"

"Inside every widow there's a spider that weaves it's webs in the corners of her heart."

"So many lovers, yet there is no love."

"To bend down for money is OK, but to bow is not."

"Once, my wife would make me coffee. These days, she hardly puts the kettle on."

"when a fool fails he says I was unlucky, when a wise man fails he says what a fool I had been. Song "If I was a Cat" live version."

"When you have a full bouquet you can't sit back and smell each flower."

"The mind is like a sea, few are those who dare sail, most stand on the shore and watch. Artist pages. (A.S.)"

"The Blues is an acoustic tear."

"A cup of kindness is better than a whole bottle of mercy can be."

"I think that you have to seriously have fun, or taking serious things in a light way and obviously, for me, before all, music is made of fun and pleasure and excitement."

"At a very early stage I realised that it's a real problem to perform electronic music on stage because electronic instruments are not particularly convincing on a visual point of view: somebody behind his computer, it's not particularly visual. So I was inspired by the opera. And what was the opera in the 19th century? It was the idea for a musician to join and to work, to collaborate with a stage director, with carpenters, painters, people doing decors, graphic artists to have a visual prolongation, a visual correspondence to their work. That's what I tried to do with the tools of my generation: electronics and video and lights and all that."

"Her name is Melissa Kaplan, I've worked with her a lot and I designed the tracks with her voice in mind."

"I am a sensitive person, so it is actually saddening to learn that these poverty-stricken families are most of the time mistreated or looked down upon. Help the poor, like how you would want to be helped if you were in their position."

"Sometimes, opening up your eyes and realising what you have – no matter how little you think – helps you find yourself."

"Don’t let life pass you by before you realise that it was worth living."

"Stay in the middle, don't get pushed to the side, every chance that's worth taking, is a chance worth the fight"

"Me gusta el sol, Alicia y las palomas, el buen cigarro y la guitarra española, saltar paredes y abrir las ventanas y cuando llora una mujer. Me gusta el vino tanto como las flores y los conejos pero no los tractores, el pan casero y la voz de Dolores y el mar mojándome los pies, no soy de aqui ni soy de allá no tengo edad ni porvenir y ser felíz es mi color de identidad."

"Well, I like people a lot. I could define myself as a pacific being, a lover of nature, music and people. The qualities that I admire the most in the human being is the capacity of getting along with its similars in holy peace."

"What I hate the most in the world is injustice. Unfortunately, there is a lot of injustice in the world. Once we understood the mission that God gave us in this earth that is to sing to love, try to repeat his word, spread his word, because there is no other thing that we do but sing to love, tell people to be happy. Not to hurt each other, hit each other, kill each other."

"The couples I married, I never chose them, they did."

"For three years I was immersed in a depression, I did not know how to assimilate the loss of my voice, which was a reality."

"Those who have had the opportunity to be rescued from an addiction, whatever it is, we are obliged to talk about this and work together to let people know how to get out of it."

"I was a depressive and self-destructive alcoholic, but I was lucky enough to meet the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and be rescued by it 15 years ago."

"English as tuppence, changing yet changeless as canal-water, nestling in green nowhere, armoured and effete, bold flag-bearer, lotus fed Miss Havishambling, opsimath and eremite, feudal-still reactionary Rawlinson End. The story so far. (Dot dot dot.)"

"... gauzes of filmy Fellini ..."

"How nice to be in England... Now that England's here, I stand upright on my wheelbarrow, And pretend I'm Boadicea."

"The gutters leaked like secrets, and the rain rained rain like rain..."

"I don't know what I want, but I want it NOW!"

"This unasked-for jollity in the middle of an English afternoon left Sir Henry shivering with a red passion, his face a crumpled tissue on which a lobster might well have wiped its bottom."

"Do you know what a palmist once said to me? She said: WILL YOU LET GO!"

"Gentlemen, I am a bulldog, and you will find my bark is worse!"

"If I had all the money I've spent on drink — I'd spend it on drink."

"That was inedible muck, and there wasn't enough of it."

"Seems a novel enough way to commit suicide. Pass me m' pistol. See if I can't bring the blighter down in the lake."

"Like the shock of fondling a raw sausage, blindfold, at a gay party ..."

"Mercifully, Henry hit him with the soft end of the pistol."

"A pale sun poked impudent marmalade fingers through the grizzled lattice glass, and sent the shadows scurrying, like convent girls menaced by a tramp."

"Fear is the root of all courage"

"Frankly, once I've eaten a thing, I don't expect to see it again."

"I've never met a man I didn't mutilate."

"The hounds are all fagged out after yesterday's Jehovah's Witnesses ... we do not want more blood all over the lawns again"

"Florrie nodded and indicated the sink:"P'rhaps you'd care to wash your hands?" "arrh no thank you M'am; I already done that against a tree before I came in here" said the Wrinkled Retainer"

"Sir Henry Rawlinson disguised as Hugh Bliette:"

"If you are normal, I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life"

"Do have an unusual day, won't you?"

"You got a light, mac? No...but I've got a dark brown overcoat."

"Why can't I be different and original, like everybody else?"

"It was a great party until someone found the hammer."

"And, looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes. Nice!"

"If you're going to say anything filthy, please speak clearly."

"I've been looking for that particular son of a bitch for seven years. I could have been a doctor, or an architect."

"Five years ago I was a four-stone apology — today I am two separate gorillas."

"Wrestle poodles...and win!"

"Viv Stanshall? I didn't know that."

"Vivian Stanshall, about three o'clock in the morning, Oxfordshire, 1973, goodnight..."

"it's the problem with Italian aeroplanes too much hair on the wings"

"why do male nudists wear towels to play tennis?"

"I'm going to rhino over your lino"

"I studied the swell of her enormous breasts and I said: "Baby you're so far ahead it's beautiful""

"Normally I pack a rod; in pyjamas I carry nothing but scars from Normandy Beach"

"earnestly humming on his way"

"Wrestled Anaconda and she's a big girl"

"Willy consulted a book called I-ching. Florrie suggested calamine lotion to stop it.... Henry suggested it sounded like something a gentleman would do behind a handkerchief"

"I got these questions always running through my head. So many things that I would like to understand. If we are born to die and we all die to live, then whats the point of living life if it just contradicts?"

"I feel the madness creeping slowly. Loved by many I'm still lonely."

"The world will not end. This is ridiculous. I think it's like 2000. It's a great trick to do business and earn lots of money because stupid people hoard things. This is a stimulator of the economy."

"Sztuka nie pyta o wiek, tylko oczekuje wiele."

"Kiedy miałem kilka lat, często podchodziłem do drzwi pokoju, w którym akurat ćwiczyła mama, wsłuchiwałem się w dźwięki i wyobrażałem sobie tę muzykę."

"...Kolejnym wydarzeniem festiwalu był występ Alchemy Trio w Synagodze Tempel. To znakomita krakowska wiolonczelistka Dorota Imiełowska z czarodziejem akordeonu Konradem Ligasem i równie rewelacyjnym kontrabasistą Romanem Ślazykiem. Z muzykami wystapił 16-letni Łukasz Pawlikowski, o którym śmiało można powiedzieć, że już dołączył do grona najlepszych polskich wiolonczelistów. Muzyka żydowska, którą grali / również we własnej aranżacji/ zachwycała, wzruszała i bawiła, bo to muzyka nie tylko niezwykle emocjonalna, ale i pełna humoru. To był nie tylko koncert - artyści zaprezentowali spektakl muzyczno-teatralny. Rewelacja!"

"People don't want to listen to an imitation. If they want to listen to my style, they will go and buy my records."

"The much loved classical diva of 20th century India Akhtaribai Faizabadi, or Begum Akhtar was the last of the great female singers from the courtesan (tawaif) community."

"As a tawaif, she was trained to charm the system and subvert narrow patriarchal practices by means of highly sophisticated seduction. At another level, she was a hapless victim, constantly tormented by the twists and turns of her own destiny. She braved on regardless, driven by a deep inner quest to pursue love in its purest form, as an end in itself; be it in music or in life."

"...singing sensation in the Indian subcontinent, feted by the cognoscenti and the commoner alike."

"Begum Akhtar's life perhaps mirrors an image where we too may briefly perceive ourselves and question the veracity of our own lives."

"Akhtar was gripped by constant melancholia. “Ya Allah, ab kya hoga?” was her constant refrain through her life that made her pour her heart and soul into couplets like “Mere Humnafas, Mere Humnawa, Mujhe Dost Ban ke Daga Na De, Mujhe Zindagi ki Dua Na De”."

"Today it's a challenge for me to sing with her portrait looking at me. Begum Akhtar's voice was a blessing and would touch the hearts of all."

"We live in an age where people are constantly trying to find remedies for pain, instead of learning how to sublimate it into divine music, the way Begum Akhtar did. For, the mercurial diva from Lucknow sang the poetry of Ghalib and many others in a manner that would make even pain seem desirable."

"A striking example [Poetry and Music] is Begum Akhtar who used sounds borrowed from language with such amazing skill. In her utterance the flowing lines of the vowel became graceful arches, and the hard consonants, supporting pillars. The edifice is then animated by vast range of hard, soft, nasal, throaty, sibilant and breathy sounds which became an integral part of her musical calligraphy. She is commonly thought of a ghazal singer,..."

"Begum Akhtar is a classic example of how personal tragedy is often that differentiating edge between a great performer and a truly exceptional one."

"...her taseer (soulful sound) was the result of years of loneliness, pain, suppression and silence."

"Akhtar was a master of what Brecht called the alienation effect; she had the ability to sing the saddest song with a bright smile."

"the early trauma of Begum Akhtar’s life resulted in the singer being consumed by melancholy. She always felt a deep vacuum in her life and lived in constant fear of “Ya Allah, ab kya hoga?” (Oh god, what next?)."

"Her forte was not necessarily the audibility of her music, for she had a defective area where her voice cracked at a high-pitch, with a limited one-octave range, but she turned it into her virtue for she knew how to mould her voice."

"She had lovers and, if the secret must be out, she drank. What else accounts for the naughtiness of her eyes? Like so many tawaifs (geishas, courtesans) there were ups and downs in her childhood, the father leaving the mother and so on, but she was blessed with the divine gift and her art transcended the various accidents of her life. In the end all else was forgotten. Only the legend and the accomplishment survive."

"I stumbled across a concert performance of the Begum singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s “Aaye kuch abr kuch sharab aaye, uss ke baad aaye jo azaab aaye” and I have been in a trance ever since."

"But Begum Akhtar who had trained long and hard under various Ustads is I think, and forgive the opinion of a rank amateur, in point of classical technique the more consummate artist."

"Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife; Without you I'd have had a lonely life. You cheated lots of times but then, I forgave you in the end Though your lover was my friend.Adieu, Francoise, it's hard to die When all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air With your lovers ev'rywhere, Just be careful; I'll be there."

"If we only have love Then tomorrow will dawn And the days of our years Will rise on that morn."

"If we only have love We can reach those in pain We can heal all our wounds We can use our own names."

"If we only have love We can melt all the guns And then give the new world To our daughters and sons.If we only have love Then Jerusalem stands And then death has no shadow There are no foreign lands."

"If we only have love We will never bow down We'll be tall as the pines Neither heroes nor clowns. If we only have love Then we'll only be men And we'll drink from the Grail To be born once again; Then with nothing at all But the little we are We'll have conquered all time All space, the sun, and the stars!"

"As friends and as musical collaborators we had traveled, toured and written — together and apart — the events of our lives as if they were songs, and I guess they were. When news of Jacques’ death came I stayed locked in my bedroom and drank for a week. That kind of self pity was something he wouldn’t have approved of, but all I could do was replay our songs (our children) and ruminate over our unfinished life together."

"I think it’s obvious that Wagner’s anti-Semitic views and writings are monstrous. There is no way around that. And I must say that if I, in a naïvely sentimental way, try to think which of the great composers of the past I would love to spend twenty-four hours with, if I could, Wagner doesn’t come to mind. I’d love to follow Mozart around for twenty-four hours; I’m sure it would be very entertaining, amusing, edifying, but Wagner… Wagner? I might invite him to dinner for study purposes, but not for enjoyment. Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings. It is noble, generous, etc. But now we are entering into the whole discussion of whether it is moral or not and this becomes too involved in a discussion. But suffice it to say for now that Wagner’s anti-Semitism was monstrous. That he used a lot of, at the time, common terminology for what could be described as salon anti-Semitism, and that he had all sorts of rationalizations about it, does not make it any less monstrous. He also used some abominable phrases which can be, at best, interpreted as being said in the heat of the moment — that Jews should be burned, etc. Whether he meant these things figuratively or not can be discussed. The fact remains that he was a monstrous anti-Semite. How we would look at the monstrous anti-Semitism without the Nazis, I don’t know. One thing I do know is that they, the Nazis, used, misused, and abused Wagner’s ideas or thoughts — I think this has to be said — beyond what he might have had in mind. Anti-Semitism was not invented by Adolf Hitler and it was certainly not invented by Richard Wagner. It existed for generations and generations and centuries before. The difference between National Socialism and the earlier forms of anti-Semitism is that the Nazis were the first, to my knowledge, to evolve a systematic plan to exterminate the Jews, the whole people. And I don’t think, although Wagner’s anti-Semitism is monstrous, that he can be made responsible for that, even though a lot of the Nazi thinkers, if you want to call them that, often quoted Wagner as their precursor. It also needs to be said for clarity’s sake that, in the operas themselves, there is not one Jewish character. There is not one anti-Semitic remark. There is nothing in any one of the ten great operas of Wagner even remotely approaching a character like Shylock."

"I must tell you, that when I came back from Ramallah in September, I really felt I had done something good. For many of these Palestinian children, it was the first time they ever had a positive thought about anything to do with Israel. I asked one young girl, 'Are you glad I came?'. And she said, 'Yes, because until now I only saw Israeli tanks and Israeli soldiers, and now I see an Israeli musician'"

"The Declaration of Independence was a source of inspiration to believe in ideals that transformed us from Jews to Israelis. ... I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice. I believe that despite all the objective and subjective difficulties, the future of Israel and its position in the family of enlightened nations will depend on our ability to realize the promise of the founding fathers as they canonized it in the Declaration of Independence. I have always believed that there is no military solution to the Jewish Arab conflict, neither from a moral nor a strategic one and since a solution is therefore inevitable I ask myself, why wait?"

"Despite the fact that as an art, music cannot compromise its principles, and politics, on the other hand, is the art of compromise, when politics transcends the limits of the present existence and ascents to the higher sphere of the possible, it can be joined there by music. Music is the art of the imaginary par excellence, an art free of all limits imposed by words, an art that touches the depth of human existence, and art of sounds that crosses all borders. As such, music can take the feelings and imagination of Israelis and Palestinians to new unimaginable spheres."

"I am a Palestinian ..… and an Israeli … So you see it is possible to be both. … Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause."

"Every musician here has played these pieces many times, sometimes hundreds of times. Yesterday we looked at this music as if we had seen it for the first time. We never accept that the next note will played the same way it was played before. Thinking anew is our daily activity. I hope all the people of this region can take note of that."

"To have real knowledge, one must understand the essence of things and not only their manifestations."

"Music has the capacity to create a greater reality."

"The thing about Wagner is we’re always wrong about him, because he always embraces opposites … There are things in his operas which viewed one way are naturalistic, and viewed another way are symbolic, but the problem is you can’t represent both views on stage at once."

"I have lived as a Jew in Berlin for the past 23 years, something that would not have been possible if I did not believe that the Germans had thought long and hard about their past. No one else has managed to do this to the extent the Germans have, and I admire them for it."

"Israel's lasting future depends on its government's willingness to enter into a genuine peace agreement with the Palestinians. That this also goes for the Palestinians grouped around Hamas hardly needs to be stressed. Both sides have to understand that they must live together for better or worse and that hatred, terror and territorial, ethnic and religious exclusion have never produced peace, but rather have led to killing and more killing."

"considered the principle of equality and the pursuit of peace as the bedrock of the society they were building. What happened? ... I still believe that despite all the objective and subjective difficulties, the future of Israel and its position in the family of enlightened nations will depend on our ability to realize the promise of the founding fathers as they canonized it in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, nothing has really changed since 2004. Instead, we now have a law that confirms the Arab population as . It therefore is a very clear form of apartheid. I don’t think the Jewish people survived for 20 centuries, mostly through persecution and enduring endless cruelties, in order to now become the oppressors, inflicting cruelty on others. This new law does exactly that. That is why I am ashamed of being an Israeli today."

"I live in Germany with great concern. Today, there is a highly dangerous new anti-Semitism in Germany, and reactions to this fact, both in society and politics, are far too weak. In the early 1990s I would not have believed that anti-Semitism and xenophobia, glorification of the Nazi past and an aggressive, racial nationalism could become socially acceptable again in Germany in 2019. What is happening every day in Germany cannot be brushed away as “alarm signals”; it is far too late for those. We must condemn and countermand anti-Semitism and xenophobia roundly and jointly, every day. For there are many aspects of German culture I value greatly: literature, music and philosophy, for example. Nazism, however, does not represent the human values this German culture is founded upon. Nazism is inhuman. Before I end, permit me to say a few words on another subject which fills me with concern: in Israel, it is currently unclear how the next government will be formed. No matter how the new government turns out, however, Israelis must finally understand that their own security is inextricably linked to justice for the Palestinian people, which is so urgently needed. There can only be true and lasting peace if the unjust occupation of the Palestinian territories finally ends."

"His exceptional musical talent was already evident then and he has since developed into one of the the preeminent conductors of our time"

"I'm sure that there are many Israelis who dream of waking up one day to find the Palestinians gone. And there are many Palestinians who dream of going to bed at night and waking up the next morning to find the Israelis gone."

"I have the greatest respect for the survivors of the Holocaust. We can't even imagine what these people went through. And yet even they have differing positions … I respect that there are survivors who can't, and certainly don't want to, listen to this music. But I don't accept that the fact that an orchestra playing Wagner in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem would do any harm to someone sitting in an apartment in Haifa."

"Wagner exploited all forms of expression at a composer's disposal -- harmony, dynamics, orchestration -- to the extreme. His music is highly emotional, and at the same time Wagner has extraordinary control over the effect he achieves. That's why there is also something manipulative about Wagner's music, which is not to say that it's not honest. In fact, I believe that it's totally honest, but it also happens to be manipulative."

"The main thing is not to lose your identity and to continue working ... You have a quartet. That is such joy! You can forget everything else in the world. I'm playing a lot of chamber music these days. Tomorrow we were going to give the first performance of two trios, but because of the mourning, all concerts have been canceled."

"I was three and a half years old when my father brought home a toy fiddle," playing "with which I am very happy fancies himself a street musician... I thought not and could not be happier than go from house to house with a violin "."

"When I think of myself in those years, it seems to me that I was playing quite freely and fluently, tonally pure. But there is still have many years of hard work over the sound, rhythm and dynamics. Of course, most importantly, a deep comprehension of the inner content."

"Oistrakh's playing was not so much marked by brilliance, but by richness, lyricism, roundness of tone; the unbelievable sharp and clear contact between string and bow, his ability to lengthen the bow stroke on even the shortest notes without the slightest tension, his beautifully fleshy, supple left hand capable of producing glorious vibrato together with an infinite variety of shades."

"in te ravviso --il sogno ch'io vorrei sempre sognar! (Rodolfo)"

"Ho tante cose che ti voglio dire, o una sola, ma grande come il mare, come il mare profonda ed infinita...Sei il mio amore e tutta la mia vita! (Mimì)"

"Questo è il bacio di Tosca! (Floria Tosca)"

"Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma. (Floria Tosca)"

"Whatever the atmosphere he wanted to create, Giacomo Puccini’s sound world is unique and unmistakeable with its opulent yet clear-cut orchestration and a miraculous fund of melodies with their bittersweet, tender lyricism. His masterly writing for the voice guarantees the survival of his music for many years to come."

"The distance in form, intention, mood and expression between Schubert's songs for voice and piano and those of, say, Adele is remarkably small."

"Trying to be better than someone else is a pure waste of time. Strive to be better than you were yesterday."

"When I was back there listening to Eric play and I thought, 'Gosh, I hate it when the warm up guy is better than I am.' He was great."

"For some reason, everybody consider me to be Belorussian, because since I have moved from a village good three decades have already passed.Countrymen resent: are you a Belorussian indeed? And I agree as I have never considered myself to be neither Belorussian nor even more so Russian."

"I am proud to be Ukrainian."

"Over the years I felt call to motherland that sometimes I even wanted to cry because of nostalgia. You will not believe but my present flat is a real Ukrainian house. I collect embroidered towels and embroidered shirts. More and more often I recollect the words of Nina Matvienko, whom I respect a lot: "Where your navel is dug there you will always feel a call". And it is true."

"That's talent!! I'll take him to the stage. The military don't need such voice."

"O que é, o que é. Clara e salgada Cabe em um olho Pesa uma toneladaTem sabor de mar Pode ser discreta Inquilina da dor Morada predileta Na calada ela vem Refém da vingança Irmã do desespero Rival da esperança."

"Man, I just followed the same formula. I feel like if something ain’t broke, you don’t fix it. I’m gonna give the fans what they want, so I’m giving them what they want. I have a couple of different flows on there. But it’s gonna be the same Rubba Band Business that people love, that was banging in the clubs and stuff like that."

"Man, I love music. I looked up to producers like Barry White and Isaac Hayes. You know, I was about those guys. Dr. Dre, Michael Jackson, looking at those guys, how they came up, looking at all those guys I feel like I’m one of those guys. I’m one of those legendary guys just like them. I’ll never go anywhere. I love music. I love making music and working with different producers and getting the rappers and stuff like that. I signed TM88 to my company, you know? It’s been successful. He produced "XO Tour Llif3," which sold over four million copies."

"And I got some other producers I’m working with right now. I got YK 808, I got Deedotwill, I got other up-and-coming artists. I stay working with different people. I like overlapping and vibing with different producers, and that’s just how I’ve always been, man. Even when I was with Three 6 Mafia. I used to always just search for new talent and work with new talented people. I just think that’s what it is. I love making music. I don’t like to stay in the same place -- I’m not that type of person. But I still keep my roots. I still keep my sound."

"I’m executive producing Suicideboys. I’m executive producing their new album. I’m doing a lot of that. Me and A$AP Rocky got a lot of great records we got coming out. I just stay busy, man. I just adapt with times. That’s just who I am. I move forward. Even working in the studio, the equipment changes. The mixing boards -- people used to make their beats on MPCs and W30s and SP100s. Now, people are making beats on computers."

"I always adapt to everything that’s going on. If a new iPhone 8 is coming out, I gotta get it. If a new computer is coming out, I gotta get. Everything that’s new. I don’t live in the past. I just don’t. I still have my sound. I still have my flow. Everything sounds like the stuff that I created from back in the ‘90s. All the flows, I created all of that. I created everything. Everything you hear on the radio, it’s the Three 6 sound so I keep that sound but I still stay relevant. I don’t dwell in the past. My mind is not in the ‘90s, even though I’m a bigger star in the ‘90s -- I’m not in the ‘90s. Some people be stuck back in time, in their prime, in their moment, but I always move forward. A lot of people ask me that. I just move forward."

"Listen to anyone in the street and he’ll tell you what to do. Our people are wise."

"Ukraine can become a successful country and a major player on the political stage if we start heeding the voices of the people."

"Responsibility has increased at times. We have no right to be in depression. We must pull ourselves out at any cost. We have a unique chance and we have no moral right to lose it. We have no right to lose Ukraine!"

"On December 8th and 10th in the Lviv Organ Recital Hall, the choir and orchestra of the Lviv Higher Music Institute M.V.Lysenko under the direction of Heorhyj Pavlyj performed Henry Purcell's opera, "Dido and Aeneas," in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the composer's death. However, among the soloists, Vasyl Slipak (countertenor, by the way, the only in Ukraine) charmed audiences with his expressive manner of singing."

"But that all changed in 2014, when Russia invaded the Ukraine. Slipak left the opera and joined as a volunteer with the free Ukrainian forces, fighting in the eastern Ukraine, carrying a belt-fed machine gun and adopting the nom de guerre "Meph" based on his highly praised renditions of the aria "Mephistopheles" from the opera "Faust." He adopted a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle, similar to a Mohawk, and served at various positions along the front lines in a maze of Russian minefields and trenches. Along the way, he became a folk hero to the Ukrainian people. It can truly be said that while the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and Ukraine became a separate country, its real independence dates from Maidan Square, and Wassyl Slipak is a national hero for giving up an incredible career and the luxury of celebrity and fame to help make that possible."

"He was a brilliant singer and a brilliant person. Vasyl Slipak could never stay aside the injustice. When he decided to go to Ukraine, I tried to persuade him to remain in France, just willing to defend him from potential threat. But he insisted Ukraine needed him more than French opera."

"[He's] more than a colleague, more than a friend. I feel him like a brother. A man who loved every culture, you know, an open minded man."

"Finally he decided to go to the frontlines because he needed to feel useful and to defend his country — it was so important for him. It's about the culture. It's not really about politics. It's about the freedom of his country."

"He never stopped to sing, never. It's about resistance. It's not about to be a soldier. He is a singer who decided to defend his country — that's all."

"I feel he chose the name Meph because this is the possibility to say. I'm a singer and I'm here to fight and this is a symbol. The possibility to give the people a question: Why is a singer here, why?"

"I am proud to be a brother of such a person. Now all I can is hope that Ukrainians will make right conclusions and will move on, as my brother wished they should have done."

"Let's bow our heads, citizens. A great Ukrainian was killed today while defending our land and all of us... Wassyl Slipak, globally renowned opera singer, who had lived and worked in France for 19 years, in the Paris opera, but abandoned his career and returned to defend Ukraine when Russian aggression started, was killed at the front line near Donetsk as a Right Sector fighter. Volunteer soldier Wassyl Slipak is an example of a patriot citizen. Waasyl Slipak died as a soldier. Books will be written about him, streets named after him; concerts will be held for him, and students will be told about him in schools and conservatoires... Rest in peace, dear Meph, you laid your life for each of us, we will not forget your sacrifice for Ukraine. We will not be half-hearted."

"Since Russia started its aggressive actions against Ukraine he quit his European career and returned to Ukraine (as a volunteer soldier) to defend his homeland. He died in the ranks of the nationalist group Right Sector at the frontline in the Donetsk region. His nom de guerre was Myth – a shortened version from Mephistopheles (the Faust opera). He was not a professional soldier, he was a singer…"

"Ukraine this year celebrated 25 years of independence, but it was real independence only after the Maidan, when a real state started to form. Here we have an example of a person who left his career to fight. New heroes of the new Ukraine are being born."

"Mr. Slipak was born in the western city of Lviv on Dec. 20, 1974. A musical prodigy as a child, he rose quickly to fame performing in France in the late 1990s. By 2011, he was at the top of his field, winning the prize for best male performer at the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary, for his rendering of the Toreador Song from the opera Carmen.He adopted a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle, similar to a Mohawk, and served at various positions along the front line — a maze of trenches and minefields that surrounds separatist territory. Mr. Slipak, who had won fame in France for his renditions of the aria of Mephistopheles from the opera «Faust», adopted the nom de guerre Meph."

"One of the worst abominations of this filthy war is that the Russian world is losing its lumpen population, while Ukraine is forced to lose a whole cross-section of society. The «Russian World» is losing car wash cleaners. Ukraine is losing opera singers, journalists, IT specialists, businessmen… Russia is grinding up the Ukrainian gene pool. It is doing to Ukraine what it has done for centuries to itself. The surname of Slipak I have heard for the first time today, but the very fact of the loss of this life – for me this is a tragedy. Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls… This should be a separate item of charges during the Hague trial. Not just a crime against humanity. A crime against the human gene pool. Against the human race. Against culture. Against science. Against development. A crime against the planet. A crime against the future. «Irreparable damage to the future of mankind». That is how that paragraph should probably read. At such moments, I feel particularly sharp guilt for the fact that there is nothing I can do to stop this. There is no way I can affect this… I tried. I honestly did. But there are more of them. Millions. I’m sorry."

"The international jury of the Festival and the Opera Competition in Szeged composed of: Raymond DUFFAUT – the chairman of the jury, Andrea Rost, Esther Lehoczky, Henry Little, Luca Targetti and Walter Kobéra decided that “The Emperor of Atlantis” by Viktor Ullmann, a performance directed by Beata Redo-Dobber with Tomasz Tokarczyk as a director of music, was the best of five performances presented between 6 and 14 October in Szeged. According to the jury’s verdict, Wassyl Slipak, playing the role of the Death (Der Tod) in “The Emperor of Atlantis” was awarded the prize for the best soloist. The verdict was announced during the official gala at the Theatre in Szeged on 15 October."

"He was Energy, filled with optimism. No matter what happened, no matter how hard things got – he always smiled, joked and looked up to the sky. He kept moving forward. Two meters high, with a straight back, and always speaking the truth. He lived through what he did. He didn’t just sing – he was a hero of the stage. And he fought the same way, not talking about the war itself. He loved his friends and was fierce with his enemies. Ukraine flowed through his veins. That was his typical Galician-Slipak-Omelyan persistency – believing that he was the one who could change the world. Infinitely outgoing, he was always ready to give you everything he had without a thought. He was the type of guy that would nonchalantly come visit you for a day that would turn into a month, and then just as easily invite you over to his place for another month or two. The stage was his calling. His Hollywood. He was on that path since childhood. Dudaryk (Men’s Choir), the French Grand Prix, the Paris Opera – these aren’t just his achievements, but also, in our mind, the achievements of our family and of all of Ukraine. I can still hear his rendition of “When the two parted” while we were his guests in Sardinia. That was the last time when our big family was together. The Maidan changed him. He was always ashamed, to some extent, that he wasn’t on that smoke-filled square. He wrote, called, and actively organized help for our cause from France. After the first war, he came back a changed man. Even stronger, more persistent and more focused on the important things. He died like the true Cossack that he wanted to be – that he was – with a weapon in his hands. Fighting. There is nothing harder than burying your loved ones. I don’t know how it is up there for you, Vasya. It might have been better if you stayed at the opera, and taught everyone on Facebook how to better control the world and to overcome the Moskals. Rest in peace, Brother! Rest in peace, Wassyl Slipak!"

"Then, we sang «Requiem» by W. A. Mozart. This piece requires quite a large team of musicians – 50 people in the orchestra and the same number in the choir. But there are also some passages for the soloist like «Tuba Mirum». So, when Wassyl started to sing this excerpt himself, I suddenly realized that he made the 250 meter-long hall resonate his voice. It is something that fifty of us managed to do only all in unison. Now, as a specialist, I can say that he got his rare timbre not by accident. His oval face with a long nose and elongated neck are typical signs of a bass voice that he developed later. But at the same time, he sang countertenor up to 28 years because his voice transformation happened extremely late. In other words, Wassyl managed to combine in himself two incompatible voices and perform both of them on a big stage. Call it what you want – God’s gift or a joke of nature, but it was amazing. At that time we did not see each other for three years. After that pause, I met Wassyl again and did not recognize him. He turned from a skinny young man into a courageous giant – big, strong and serious. But his internal changes were even more impressive. He became a principled patriot, he did not seem to tolerate things which were OK for him earlier when it came about Ukraine. But the largest change happened in his voice, because he began to sing bass."

"I had heaps of work those days, it was very intensive and seemed to me endless. When I felt so desperate that I was about to give it all up, Wassyl was the only person who supported me: ‘Don’t worry, we will be doing everything together and we will succeed, he told. It was so simple, sincere, and convincing that I couldn’t help believing it. Since then our collaboration began. He was extremely useful for Ukraine here, in France. He was a true intellectual, he spoke seven languages. After Natalka Pasternak [Ukrainian community leader in France – Ed.] had passed away, he was the only person who had potential to unite us, to lobby Ukrainian interests on an international level… But he had a need to be at the forefront, where modern Ukrainian history was being written. So he abandoned work, stopped looking for contracts and sang only occasionally, so that he could send some money to Ukraine."

"Amid the thud of artillery and rattle of gunfire, Vasyl Slipak’s deep, resonant voice in the trenches of eastern Ukraine was a warm reminder of humanity’s less barbaric traits. The professional baritone had left his native Ukraine in the 1990s to settle in France, where he regularly sang at the Paris Opera. But after war erupted in 2014, he decided to return home and join a volunteer battalion to fight Russian-backed separatists on the country’s eastern front."

"We saw him off with applause. Lviv, meet the Cossack. It's a pain..."

"There are strong people in the world, who stand up for ideas by means of their talent. They are artists or craftsmen, writers or farmers, who are proud of their history, their past, present, and future. They switch from one art to another, forgetting that there is no otherworldliness on Earth and that human stupidity is a very complicated art which can only be appraised in the course of time and in silence. The same also applies to Vasyl Slipak – we in the West call an exalted voice like his the ‘voice from the Don’ because of its profundity and strength. This time it is about his last cry of freedom. This opus is not aimed at glorifying those who are ‘for’ or ‘against.’ I want to explain by means of this opus that, whatever the case, people must not die in the 21st century, sacrificing themselves on the altar of the god of war. The truth is hidden deep in the heart, and while peace protects it, war destroys it. So let me remember Vasyl Slipak as a friend who had no enemies and whose superb voice carried love for humanity. (2017)"

"I told about Vasyl to French composer Pierre Thilloy, my good acquaintance, and offered him to write a small piece. He creates music which is easy to listen to, and he agreed immediately and said he would like to visit the premiere.(2017)"

"I would like to say that many French people from various walks of life hardly knew anything about Ukraine before the events on Maidan. Thanks to Vasyl Slipak, an opera singer, they became interested in your country, they watched televised reports. There also was an extensive publication about him in France’s most popular daily Le Monde, which awoke a wide response. It was some seven or eight years ago. We were acquainted by my friend, an interesting composer Yevhen Halperin (his father comes from Kyiv), a friend of Vasyl. They lived in the same house in Paris, but on different floors. At a party at Halperin’s place he said, ‘This guy has a unique voice, just listen.’ I was impressed by Vasyl’s talent and offered him to take part in our concerts. We performed Requiems by Verdi and Mozart back then, later we had some 10 to 15 programs together. We had successful opera gala evenings, and we were planning to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, but it wasn’t to be. (2017)"

"He was really successful, he had very many concerts in Paris. In music circles everyone knew him. I believe that in about five years he would have become a hugely famous singer, because he was getting more and more invitations as an artist. I never saw him in a bad mood, he radiated positive emotions even if things were not going best. Meanwhile, it was not always easy for him, there were various situations concerning his career or money. When we were working on concert programs, he acted very professionally. We had a great relationship as colleagues. We knew and sensed each other well. Also, sometimes we had very personal conversations. (2017)"

"Vasyl was supposed to become my vocal adviser in my future project. For three years Slipak was a soloist at the Grand Opera. He got solo parts, but he also wanted to have concert practice, that is why he chose a sort of freelance. Mind you, when the war in the east of Ukraine broke out, his vocal career was on the rise. Characteristically, Vasyl did not give up his career, he would be active as a volunteer, then he would return from Ukraine to France to give concerts and appear in performances, and then again he would go to Ukraine, which he loved above all. And then again more concerts, and again back to the front. (2017)"

"You know, in his last six months Vasyl had changed a lot. Many tried to talk him out of going to the war, but he was adamant. All his money and all his energy he gave to the cause of the new Ukraine. It was his motivation in life. What a shame that a sharpshooter’s bullet took the life of terrific vocalist and patriot. Our duty is to remember Vasyl Slipak. I want to join my Ukrainian colleagues to discuss some future art projects. We already had a meeting with Volodymyr Syvokhip, director of the Lviv Philharmonic Society, and we plan to hold a Vasyl Slipak Open International Memorial Music Marathon in Lviv from June 29 till July 1. (2017)"

"Despite having a successful artistic career (Slipak lived in France for the last 19 years of his life and worked as a soloist at the Paris Opera), he did not stay aloof to the hardships that our country was going through when the war started. He managed to juggle volunteer work and performing in plays and concerts at first, brought humanitarian aid himself, and in summer 2015, he put a successful career on hold and went to defend the country in the ranks of the Right Sector volunteer battalion. In particular, he fought the forces of the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ in Pisky... Slipak was a patriot, an excellent singer, and an example to all Ukrainians. (2017)"

"Vasyl’s unique voice extremely harmoniously combined with his physique. He was a tall man of attractive appearance and unfailing courtesy, and it all prompted adequate response from the audience. Above all, he emphasized schooling, culture and high technique of singing! Our country has lost a talented artist who sacrificed his international career to defend the nation for which he gave his life. “My task is to make sure that Vasyl is not forgotten, and therefore we will definitely hold a memorial festival at the Lviv Philharmonic Society from June 29 to July 1. (2017)"

"Mother once said our grandfather Vasyl, after whom my brother was named, had sung very well and been a very interesting person in general. So it is believed that Vasyl inherited his talent. He supposedly had a unique voice.(2017)"

"Because he used to sing all the time and something was to be done with this. Vasyl was already 12, and I told parents that if the boy did not study seriously, he would waste his talent. Dudaryk was a very high standard at the time. Although the brother was formally too ‘old’ to qualify, he adapted quickly and easily became part of the team. Yes. Then he became a soloist, sang in concerts, particularly, with such celebrities as Dmytro Hnatiuk, Nina Matviienko, and other stars. Choir director Mykola Katsal was doing his utmost for each of the children. The choir provided not only a musical, but also a general education, and the children received true development. Vasyl became well known still at Dudaryk after singing solo in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Then was Pierrot’s Deathly Loops by Oleksandr Kozarenko. The composer had written something futuristic and could not finish his opus. But he heard Vasyl’s voice when the latter was rehearsing in the Lviv Conservatoire’s classroom. Oleksandr came in and understood that he was composing for this very singer. The premiere was staged first in Lviv and then at festivals in Kyiv and Odesa. Thereafter, no major national festivals in Ukraine were held without Vasyl.(2017)"

"Even more! He had a unique talent for languages and did not have to learn any. He never did any courses! When he came back from France, he spoke French. He would quickly learn the language of any country he came to – Polish, Spanish, German, Russian… This came very easily to him. He never spent as much time to learn a language as, for example, I did. I envied my brother in this case. Moreover, he not only spoke nut also wrote. The French praised his French very much. His ear for music must have helped him. Besides, he had a good natural memory. Hence were his broad communication and a career growth.(2017)"

"You know, he learned continuously! He took lessons even at age 42. He did it meticulously, without being ashamed or considering himself a star that can rest on his laurels. He had a need for self-improvement.(2017)"

"He worked very actively in the last year of his life. Everybody says he was at the peak of his career in 2016. He had an enormous number of concerts to give from September 2015 to May 2016.(2017)"

"Frankly speaking, he did not say much to us about the front. I could guess about many things but don’t know exactly. He said he was rendering humanitarian aid and supported, as a volunteer, people with various needs. But it is clear that it was not the case. He didn’t want to discuss with me the details of his trips and comment on his attitude to the sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He used to say: ‘I am where my friends, the people I trust, are.’ Only chevrons could reveal where he went to.(2017)"

"They are saying now that Vasyl Slipak was a Ukrainian patriot, a nationalist… He undoubtedly was, but not in the sense that dominates in our society! I’ve never seen him show a prejudicial attitude to other peoples. It would have been absurd to hear this from his mouth. A European person, he performed both in Europe and in Africa and received a warm welcome everywhere.(2017)"

"About a month before his last trip to the front, all his friends noticed that he had changed very much – he stopped talking about the events in Ukraine, became quiet and even-tempered. He decided on what he was to do.(2017)"

"I think it was a prescribed road of sorts. The things that had occurred since his childhood were some coincidences, but he kept on walking. It’s the illustration of a 42-year-long life, sort of an encyclopedia. Vasyl was not concerned about his career, he accepted things as befits a man, he was calm about the challenges of fate, well-balanced, and polite. Sometimes he could be tough in defending his position. But, in my view, everything was painted somewhere above. It’s easier to say that it was God’s will.(2017)"

"Many people were wondering what a brilliant opera singer was doing in the war in Donbas. It was his personal example of self-devotion to his country. Forty-odd years old Vasyl Slipak was known throughout Europe as an opera singer, he played leading roles in many perfomances, could have had tremendous future, however when the war broke out at homeland, he could not but step in ... The role of Mephistopheles in the opera «Faust» of Charles Gounod was Vasyl Slipak’s favourite, that’s why his nickname Myth was in tune with it. Vasyl Slipak’s life may have been short, but as full of heroism as mythology. He showed the audience a rare and exceptional singing art. His vocal talent was called a wonder of nature, and many teachers wished to have Vasyl in their class. When journalists found out that there was an opera singer at the front line, the news about him started spreading far and wide. Vasyl Slipak did not turn down interviews. He tried to explain to people his position, to support those who lost faith, and to draw in some help for the fighters.(2017)"

"Vasyl Slipak is a lighthouse of the Ukrainian nation. Through his spiritual light, he pointed to the whole path, the path of goodness, devotion, sacrifice, and patriotism. Although he was forcibly extinguished, Ukrainians should go further and not change the road.(2017)"

"Vasyl Slipak showed by his example an incredible will of Ukrainians to defend their native land. As a volunteer fighter, he demonstrated an example of patriotism and self-sacrifice to many, particularly our young people.(2018)"

"I am going to tell you a story. The story of a person for whom being listened to became the sense of his life. That's because that man had divine voice. He was called the best baritone and countertenor of the world. His voice sounded in Carnegie Hall here in New York, in Notre-Dame de Paris, Covent Garden Opera in London, and Grand Opera in Paris. Every one of you could have listened to his incredible singing, but, unfortunately, there is a thing that will not allow you to do so again. I looks like this and I will show you. That is. 12.7 millimeters, which not only ended his career - it stopped his life. By the way, it costs only ten U.S. dollars. And this is, unfortunately, the price of a human life on our planet. A man I've just told you about was Vasyl Slipak. He was a Ukrainian and soloist of the Paris National Opera who was murdered in Donbas, defending Ukraine against Russian aggression. (2019)"

"As long as there is music there will not be the end of the world."

"Can we forget the color of each other,I hope on the land,There is no inequality,"

"forgive that i am unruly indulgent and loving freedom throughout my life,"

"Inscribe on your heart Every inch of the time at sunset."

"Autumn is beginning, the weather is turning chill. Crickets move in to sing under my bed. A thousand things surge into my mind And grieve my heart. A thousand tales search for words; But to whom will they be told? The morning breeze flows under my sleeves, The moonlight thins, And the cock crows, As I turn my horses' heads towards home."

"There is a fair woman in the west, who is as bright as sunlight. She wears a dress of the finest silk and jewelry shines from her left, her right. Her face is a charm, so full of grace, lightly perfuming the breeze. Climbing upward, she keeps watch for her loved one, holding her sleeves, she faces the morning sun. She hovers, she drifts through the sky, waving her sleeves, she dances, flies like the wind, like a cloud, in [a] trance. Every so often, she glances at me, but for me this beauty is out of reach. Left alone, I lament my fate."

"One day, in the woken up city Charming evening. One night, when the moon woke up, A teenage boy Who dreams lonely Laughs and sings Draws pictures of happiness"

"This mind of mine Doesn't care for any barrier Hoping to find you It comes back, again and again"

"Nothing conduces so emphatically to the harmony of sounds as perfect classical piano play."

"She said as an ambitious woman she learnt to stand on her own feet and to leave a life independent of her father."

"As an individual, I have always have a passion to assist and mentor the girl-child. “I will keep on doing my best through Vabvana Trust as we seek to change people’s lives."

"I just want to walk my path but I don’t mind having him around me."

"Selmor has been exceptionally helpful as we build up the new Old Mutual Amazing Voices talent search initiative, designed to platform a whole new generation of singers, so her role in working with the aspiring competitors has been enormously beneficial."

"As such, the hard-working diva, through her three-year-old Vabvana Trust, has since stepped up efforts to bring smiles on the poor"

"We were just talking about this and I don't think we did, it's just natural that something works or it doesn't, you know? I would look at Ivan's paintings, or he would listen to a sound and change something, and it's not something that's overthought."

"I was on before this experimental guy, Morton Subotnick- This old, 80 year-old classic experimental guy. The venue's beautiful. Huge big cinema screen, and I'm like 'What the hell can I do to, you know, wake this audience up from the slumber?', so I decided to throw myself down this staircase to begin the show, which went very well."

"I just like working you know? So I guess what gets released is just the tip of the iceberg."

"It's so beautiful, because you don't really notice the soundtrack which is what I was aiming for."

"I would expect the unexpected, I think that's always the best thing to expect these days. That's always the motivation, 'expect the unexpected'"

"In terms of working with dementia-as a concept-I don't know, it just fascinates me, you know, memory going wrong. There's nothing really to add. I think I'm really fascinated by memory and things going wrong."

"But always, I've got to make it sound like it's organic, so it's not being done digitally, you know? I am always trying to do something where you can't really hear the process, but you can imagine "this is going wrong, this is crumbling down'."

"The process is often before the show."

"Education is very important. Education in the sense that, you have to study whatever it is that you love so that you could do it to your best ability with more knowledge."

"Not all of us are gifted in the academia scene and not all of us are good at doing the main subjects such as science and math, but everyone is gifted one way or another, so if you’re a musician take music classes to increase the knowledge that you have right now and improve the quality of your work. But never stop learning."

"Rehearsals help to cultivate the potential in you and they help you to become a better musician or a better songwriter."

"Patience is important, take time with your craft and don’t be afraid to start over and over again if you are not satisfied with what you’ve written. It’s important to balance the external pressure so you don’t end up rushing yourself."

"I started singing since my consciousness, and I haven’t stopped since, it has always been my way of expressing myself."

"I believe that we all have a journey of self-discovery that we must go through, and my music reflects this journey."

"I believe that music has the power to heal, inspire, and uplift people, and I want my music to do just that."

"With hard work and perseverance, it is possible to achieve success and make a positive impact on the industry and the world at large."

"Music can also be used to inspire and empower women and girls and to challenge societal norms and stereotypes about gender roles and expectations. Songs that celebrate the strength and resilience of women...are aimed at being incredibly empowering for women and girls who may be struggling with their own self-esteem or facing discrimination and inequality."

"Representation and diversity are crucial in the music industry. When we see artists from diverse backgrounds and with diverse perspectives, it inspires us to think outside of our own experiences and to see the world from new angles."

"Know your audience. The better your understanding of your audience the better you can communicate with them."

"Communication is key in any relationship and journalists are no different; for the more and clearer the information you give the better the relationship."

"Understanding what it is that a journalist needs; if you can make it any easier for a journalist to do his/her job it always helps."

"Try not to influence what a journalist writes, as long as they have the facts."

"As a kid I was bullied when I came to the UK because I was dark-skinned had short hair and just didn't fit in. I didn't speak that much English and was dyslexic so I had many challenges. But my mum was my inspiration as she encouraged me and said you can be whoever you want to be. I was always looking for inspiration and people who could inspire me, I wanted to listen to people's journeys."

"When you ask someone who inspires you they always say Bill Gates or Steve Jobs - there are no African names and we (Africans) have great African people doing great things."

"The best way to celebrate is to give those who lack. 40 years of life has been phenomenal and I want to continue impacting society and humanity."

"Music is supposed to have an effect. If you're playing music and people don't feel something, you're not doing shit. That's what African music is about. When you hear something, you must move. I want to move people to dance, but also to think. Music wants to dictate a better life, against a bad life. When you're listening to something that depicts having a better life, and you're not having a better life, it must have an effect on you."

"It was an unconditional release. That means I have no record—I did not commit any offence."

"I even became suicidal but I thank God I am still here"

"I just want people to get out of the habit of the ‘pull-her-down syndrome; not just among artists but everyone around them. We are human beings and I have lost count of the times I wanted to quit but kept pushing."

"This was probably one of the hardest decisions I had to take because I worked so hard and popularised the Amantle Brown brand, but it had to be done."

"That was the hardest time of my career as it made me lose credibility to a brand"

"I will represent Botswana and our artists with pride and carry our flag high. I’m excited to show the world what Botswana has to offer and to open doors for more creatives back home"

"This is another partnership worth appreciating as we see our local private sector coming together to support BITC’s efforts towards promoting and positioning Botswana globally"

"It taught me that talent is only one part of the equation, the other part being what you do the platform you have being given. However, that is not to say it was smooth sailing thereafter, I went through a lot in life as well as my career. Right now I understand that I have a role to play in my society, that I am a role model to some, a business woman and a community builder, those ups and downs are the lessons that sharpened me to be the brand that I am today. I have evolved from being that little girl to being the young woman I am today that understands she has to take up space and use her voice not just for music but to also have an impact in the lives of Batswana especially the girl child"

"This song is a love story, but I wanted the video to reflect cultural identity and expression through movement"

"I appreciate the team’s effort and commitment. Azonto’s leadership helped keep everyone coordinated and focused"

"I am so excited that it happened to an ordinary girl. Right now my purpose has shifted, I want to inspire young, upcoming girls from all over the country. I’ve turned what happened to me into a purpose-driven scenario. I want them to know it’s possible"

"When you get to a point where you are cancelled as an entertainer, and people sort of forget about you, it takes a lot away from a person"

"That issue affected my business a lot. Brands didn’t want to work with me. I was basically cancelled. But it made me dig deep. It shaped me into a totally different person. I’m more optimistic now. I’m a dreamer again. I’ve expanded my business and I’m exploring other things"

"I always went back to the moment I wrote Black Mampatile. I was alone then, not waiting for anyone’s validation. I remembered to dream again. I always wanted to go back to the girl who wrote that song. I prayed to God to get me back to that girl"

"I was wondering whether I was good enough, if I would deliver. Would they understand and feel what I was doing or is it only Batswana who relate"

"I was just myself, really. I didn’t try to imitate anyone to fit in. But the pressure was intense I was carrying the industry with me. It was no longer just about me"

"What’s next for me is everything under the sun. I have grown, I have evolved. I’m no longer just an artist. I’m an entrepreneur now"

"I’m going to leave my mark on earth, and I’ve pledged to the Lord that I’ll do it how He planned, because of what I’ve learnt when I was down"

"I believe in my sound, I believe that I will be able to touch those in attendance and hopefully leave my mark. But most of all I just hope my vocal range will be on point"

"We have been rehearsing tirelessly. I am really nervous as this will be my first real challenge"

"This was women’s work around the house, but I didn’t like it, so I came out when I was 13"

"The fact that I sing about love doesn’t have anything to do with my emotional life. I think I didn’t have a husband because in Cape Verde, when you have a husband, you have a child, two children, three children. Then sometimes if the man wants, he just leaves you and you have to have another man to help you, because you cannot raise those children alone. It’s hard to live like that"

"That doesn’t happen to everybody, but it’s common in Cape Verde. That’s why in Cape Verde, women are always fighting for themselves and for their children"

"Women in Cape Verde are very strong, and we have a fighting spirit."

"I’m just a simple person. I’m not hard to understand."

"I was born in a poor country. I was poor, but I lived all my life with what I had. I didn’t spend more than I had. Cape Verde is not the only place where there are poor people"

"Now I work, and I see the results of my work, so I have some money,” she says. “But I’m still the same person that I was before. I still have the same simple life. I still have the same friends"

"Life in the islands is not easy, because there are very few resources, and you could say that my life and life in the islands are related"

"I started singing in the neighborhood where I lived, just with my friends... It was just to amuse ourselves"

"In Cape Verde ... I used to sing for tourists and for the ships when they would come there"

"There was no real progress,” she acknowledged in Pulse!. “I wasn’t making any money out of it, so I just stopped"

"Because I couldn’t find anyone to help me out in Cape Verde, I had to start recording in France in 1988"

"They’re going to feel my message through my presence and my music"

"I wasn’t astonished by Europe and I was never that impressed by the speed and grandeur of modern America"

"I only regret my success has taken so long to achieve"

"Evora, Cesaria 1941,updated May 21 2018,https://www.encyclopedia.com/"

"I had the dream of producing my work, I wanted to try some ideas that I solidified throughout over the years,The album Nha Sunhu (2015) is the result of that, that thirst of independence"

"I wanted to include the energy and authenticity of African music"

"always leave something to decipher"

"Eneida Marta is a special artist; her soul has an unusual depth. Her distinct timbre can balance lament and hope in the same word, in the same breath. It is not difficult to fall in love with her voice, and once you do, it will be difficult to keep away from her.” Nuno Pacheco in Jornal Público"

"I'm honoured to be able to play Lilly more and more. It is a challenge that is really exciting, but also a little nerve-racking. I think that they saw the kind of person I am, a bubbly and confident person, and saw that I could do a good job"

"It's been so overwhelming because you don't expect people to know you or recognise you in the street, but they do. People are so friendly and even my own extended family treat me like a celeb. I have to tell them that I am not any different to before. It is crazy"

"I respond to people as myself. People need to know that I am not my character and we are different. That person is on screen, and this is me, and they need to deal with me"

"It’s great being back on set. We all understand that we need this job in order to make ends meet so everyone is cooperating to the rules. It is quite tricky acting with masks on because now our eyes need to tell the story, which is a great challenge"

"I am never ever ashamed. My mother taught me that you do not ever feel embarrassed by doing honest work. If it gives you money and brings you happiness, then there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It is my side hustle, I own it, and no one can tell me anything. It is a brand I am very proud of. I can never be ashamed of it"

"People do not usually get to see celebrities doing the groundwork. For them it is also an inspirational thing that ‘haybo Lilly, uyi-celebrity and you are out here in the street selling hotdogs’. And I say we all have to hustle because depending on one salary does not work"

"We literally did not have bread at home and we could not work. I had been making the hotdogs for a while and anyone who had ever had them had asked why I don’t sell them. So, backed up into a corner, I decided to just try"

"It has grown so much because of the people in the street. I understand my market. My market are the people that are in the street. I’d never be ashamed of where I get my money. Ngama never lawo"

"On the first day I made R700 and I thought ‘mmh, we can do this again’. So now we had the essentials of bread and milk and I restocked to make the hotdogs again and I have never stopped"

"Embrace every opportunity that comes your way"

"Feel the fear and do it anyway"

"Go with your passion"

"Ask for help – you don’t know until you ask"

"Find a mentor or coach – sometimes just to help you clarify your own thoughts by talking an idea thorough"

"We are attached to the culture of where we grew up and for me is the umuntu culture,the human being part of that culture"

"I have met people from my culture who are probably too shy to say they are Zimbabweans,or embrace and be proud of this vibrant culture.I am unashamedly proud of it"

"It is my role to tell stories,I am not an actress,and that will be a nice challenge very exciting"

"There is something incredibly powerful about the soil of Africa and for me it is to inspire a child to see a different Africa and also take them on a journey.The music at the end is a little bonus,but the biggest part of me is describing Africa and also the questions"

"The best kind of questions comes from the children,they ask incredibly honest questions.Maybe we could learn from them,it would make the world a better place if we had the confidence to ask questions that kids ask.There is something about them that fulfils what you do as an artist as a way to inspire the next generation"