Michael Stipe (John Michael Stipe) Quotes
There is always something of the writer in the work but I don't think Melville had to be swallowed by a whale to write a great novel. If I had lived the lives of all the characters of the songs I've written, that would truly be an extraordinary story.

Quotes to Explore
-
I was the kid who never won the races. I never jumped the highest. I wasn't on the list of the high-achieving.
-
I wear the Jewish star, but I'm not - I haven't converted to Judaism, and I'm not - I'm not - I'm not Jewish in the conventional sense because the Kaballah is a belief system that predates religion and predates Judaism as an organized religion.
-
I am always early to work but sometimes late to other things.
-
I really, really loved making 'This Is My Life' and 'Now and Then.'
-
It's nice to see different dimensions of a character. A love interest and family life are always, I think, important in creating layers and textures.
-
If we are to change America, we must change the United States Congress.
-
It's like everybody is shooting something, and everybody's a filmmaker; everybody can shoot a cat video and post it. So the big thing now is - for people that have talent and have something to say, and are creative, and are capable of making something good - is how do they get attention to it?
-
You're creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them.
-
Although some secrecy is odious, some is essential just to preserve our sense of self.
-
The only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-ended way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts. Only openness to evidence and argument will secure a common world for us.
-
I've never been that guy who says, 'Ooh, I have to play King Lear'. First off, that'd be a disaster anyway. I tend to read something and see who's involved, and then know I want to be part of it. But I don't think I'm through with comedy. I still love to make people laugh.
-
Most people are interested in seeing 27-year-old women who are in movies somehow connected to sex. It's interesting to everyone. Especially little movies that are having trouble getting made, there's always sex.
-
I was too prissy, too refined, too abstemious, too French to be a good American writer.
-
Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.
-
I think that the legitimacy of the court would be undermined in any case if the court made a decision based on its perception of public opinion.
-
Getting elected Governor of New Mexico, I really did enjoy that job. I thought I made a really big difference, and I think the same running for president of the United States - that I could make a really big, positive difference.
-
It's not ideal to always be one eye on the Blackberry and two arms around my children. For the sake of mothers out there who don't have the Blackberry but do have the children and are hoping someone will be raising their voice on their behalf, it's a great privilege.
-
I have an incomplete album that I want to finish. I have been thinking about the plan during my days in jail, I have sung rock n' roll for forty years. After jail, I will continue to rock n' roll.
-
Since I met Starsmith, my producer, I really feel like I'm making music because we write it together and produce it together. I've got a proper involvement in the end product as opposed to just writing a song and finding someone else to produce it.
-
When I talk to film students, I always say, "Buy the DVDs and listen to the commentaries, look at the making of, look at the behind-the-scenes," because that's such a great learning tool.
-
Here I am starting a franchise and I'm gonna be 65 years old. I should've started this in 1978... I wrote like 300 songs and I'm gonna have to re-learn some of them!
-
Taken together, our songs are like a mural of our lives.
-
There is always something of the writer in the work but I don't think Melville had to be swallowed by a whale to write a great novel. If I had lived the lives of all the characters of the songs I've written, that would truly be an extraordinary story.