Ben Harper Quotes
I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.
Quotes to Explore
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Working as a musician, I have to constantly generate new material, so school keeps me sharp. Reading and writing all the time helps me to be a better songwriter.
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I just got to hear every note. After I left Birdland, I started working at the Jazz Gallery. In the end, I still couldn't play, but I knew how to listen. I was probably the world's best listener.
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I was certainly a better actor after my five years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.
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One of the biggest lessons I've learned during my time on 'Oprah' is that everyone wants to be heard. We all want to have our humanity acknowledged - to have others see us for who we truly are. We all want to know that we are valued, we are heard, we are understood.
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I was always interested in the kind of history they didn't teach you in school.
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Because we're able to adjust for compatibility - and what that means is we've already normalized for how well we think each person is going to get along with the other person - the only factor left in determining response rate, really, is the aesthetic appearance of the person who sent you that message.
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We are two brothers: I am a doctor; my brother is an engineer.
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I moved about 45 minutes from West Hollywood, and I live surrounded by nature and the wilderness, but I constantly find myself walking around, like in the commercial, saying, 'Can you hear me now?'
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I always wear the same thing at home. I can't be bothered with jewelry. My pants have elastic waists. I like to be comfortable. There are so many more important things to worry about.
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In 1949 - my father stayed on in Shanghai after the war. But in 1949, the Communists took over the whole of China, and in fact, my father was caught by the Communists in Shanghai. And he was there for about a year until he was finally able to get out.
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To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd.
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The words of truth are always paradoxical.
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I'm only drinking white wine because I'm on a diet and I don't eat.
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I kept listening to albums where I'd hear this very joyful sound - and it was always the glockenspiel. Then I ordered one online, and I figured out how to play it.
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It's very difficult switching over from one character to another.
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I have this data bank garbage can in the back of my head that is an emotional collection of events that have occurred in my life.
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No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
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But as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theater and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud.
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Truth, like climate, is common property.
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True hopefulness and optimism is what leads one to dare. It is also what lifts one back up to dare again after a failed attempt.
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I'm a night person; I don't usually get up till noon.
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To have a song work for the movie, it can't just be written apart and shoved in. It's got to come out of the action. It's got to talk about the characters, not the story: it has to augment that action.
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There’s only one thing that we have to do in life, and that is to die.
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I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.
