Lionel Richie Quotes

Exactly when people are in turmoil is the time that the entertainment business has always been at its best. Because people don't want to be reminded every day that they are under siege, or that they're not having a great time of life.

Forget about surviving 40 years in the music business. Just surviving 27 years of Nicole Richie has been a struggle-and-a-half, I want to tell you. I stand here as a survivor, I want you to know, for all the parents out there.

Believe me, I love commerce as much as the rest of the readers of 'Businessweek.' But in art, you have to be true to yourself and your musical vision. People have known me well for a long time, so if I was chasing a trend and doing something that wasn't authentic to who I am, they would know it in just a few seconds.

I don't think I'm going to be priest material.

All artists are egotistical maniacs with inferiority complexes.

My first love, you're every breath that I take, you're every step I make

Country is bringing in a little rock element... a little '80s element. Melody is king now. But its just in the music, its not so much in the songwriting, which is still very basic to the storytelling aspect of it.

People have allowed me into their homes, through my words and my music.

Soul is a feeling, not a color.

Your kids can say some cruel things to you at times. For example, Nicole, Miles and Sofie are standing there in the room and I'm dressed to kill in my own mind. They'll say to me, 'Dad, you're not going out there looking like that are you?' If that doesn't kill a star, I don't know what does!

Simplicity is the key to what I do.

I always like to challenge myself. I never want to be put into a box.

It's quite interesting that in my growing up I had several influences. We had gospel music on campus. R&B music was, of course, the community, and radio was country music. So I can kind of see where all the influences came from.

When will we ever learn, there's nowhere else we can turn.

The music business was not safe, but it was FUN. It was like falling in love with a woman you know is bad for you, but you love every minute with her, anyway.

People, as critical as it looks, we're OK. We are in control, whether we feel it or not.

I find myself going out on the road to get my confidence back, because I lose it at home.

Greatness comes from fear. Fear can either shut us down and we go home, or we fight through it.

Forget about 40 years in show business. Just surviving 27 years of Nicole Richie is enough.

Country music has always been about as close to R&B as you can possibly get. We're storytellers.

Today we've learned to celebrate mediocrity. Back in the day we had creative artists; today we have created artists.

When your past calls, don't answer. It has nothing new to say.

I'm easy like Sunday Morning.

By growing up in Alabama, I had a melting pot of the whole pie: R&B, gospel, country.

I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry, Dottie West, Conway Twitty, Buck Owens... not realizing it was influencing me as much as it was.

I just had to find all my friends that used to be in the business. As I say, the music business didn't die, it just moved to Nashville.

I'm a songwriter, and people will tell you the greatest stories about their lives, whether you want to hear it or not.

So much of my career has been about saying things the way people say them, using melodies not that I can sing but that the people can sing.

I find the greatest songs in the world come out of pain, and I don't like it! Here's what it does: It strips away all of your facade. It makes you so honest. It's cleansing.

Let the music play on would be my legacy.

Lionel Richie, love song, OK, thank you very much, good-bye. And all of a sudden I realized that, in my career, what has made my career has always been the surprises.

No one can deny, this love I have inside, and I'll give it all to you, my endless love.

The best compliment that has ever been given to me was, I was at the airport one day and a guy came in and said, 'Lionel, my wife loves you, the kids love you, my mother-in-law loves you, the family loves you.

My earliest memories of country music are the Grand Ole Opry.

Growing up with country, R&B, gospel, and classical music from my grandmother and pop, Tuskegee was the perfect melting pot for my influences as a writer.

I just like people. I'll hold a conversation at a gas station. It's not about the fame and the fortune, I just like people.

Just when I think it couldn't get any bigger, 'Tuskegee' reaches a new level of success.

Traveling did a great deal to me. I found that when I travel and just sit in the corner and watch, a million ideas come to me.

I am a country boy and proud of it.

I think the whole world is dying to hear someone say, 'I love you.' I think that if I can leave the legacy of love and passion in the world, then I think I've done my job in a world that's getting colder and colder by the day.