“I've ended up as a filmmaker who really loves the movie part of movies. That time in my life was a big influence on the kind of movies that I ended up making. I always think I'm going to make a movie that's gritty and real, but then I make a movie that's like an opera. I fight it at first and then that's just the way it is.” ThinkingWayFirstsKindRealBigsFightingInfluenceFilmmakerOpera Author:Zack Snyder
“When we first began and I was 14, my influences were the stuff that was in my parent's record collection like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.” FirstsStuffParentRecordsInfluenceCollectionsPurpleZeppelinsDeep Purple Author:Daniel Johns
“I'll say that this is probably the best time for poetry since the T'ang dynasty. All the rest of the world is going to school on American poetry in the twentieth century, from Ezra Pound to W. S. Merwin, and for very good reason. We have soaked up influence in the last century like a sponge. It's cross-pollination, first law of biology, that the more variety you have the more health you have.” WorldFirstsReasonSchoolLastsLawInfluenceCenturyCrossesVery GoodVarietyPoundsBiologyTwentieth CenturyBest TimesSpongesDynastyAmerican PoetryPollination Author:Sam Hamill
“Well I've made no secret of my life long love of MAD Magazine, it's probably my first and greatest influence in terms of my comic sensibilities. I've known John [Ficarra] for many years, and we've been friends. About four or five months ago, at a dinner in New York, John made the very nice offer of my being guest editor for an issue of MAD and I thought about it for about half a nanosecond and decided that was a pretty good idea.” YearsFirstsWellsLongMadeIdeasTermSecretHalfKnownIssuesFiveFourNiceInfluenceNew YorkMonthsOffersDecidedMadDinnerMagazinesComicEditorsGood IdeasGuestsSensibilityLong LifeVery NiceLong Love Author:Al Yankovic
“I honestly believe that once people begin to understand what's at stake here, that we have a chance here not just to make our country great, but greater than it's ever been, and we have a plan to do it, I think is going to begin to influence a lot of voters, not to mention coalesce those maybe who were with someone else first around us.” PeopleThinkingFirstsBelieveCountryChanceGreaterPlansInfluenceHonestlyOur CountryVotersStakes Author:Marco Rubio
“There were a lot of people doing new and interesting things with rock. But I wanted to take it farther than that. My real influence was punk. I must have listened to the first Patti Smith album 300 times.” PeopleFirstsRealWantedInterestingInfluenceRocksAlbumsPunkInteresting Things Author:Glenn Branca
“When I was young, I was really, really obsessed with Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes. Because my mom was a projectionist in college, she was somehow able to get a real projector. And she had some connections, so she would get real prints, and we'd put up a sheet. The first movies I saw were To Kill a Mockingbird [1962], Gigi [1958], A Woman Under the Influence [1974]. Then when I was old enough to be able to rent movies, I went through a very big Cassavetes phase.” FirstsRealEnoughBigsAbleYoungSawsInfluenceCollegeMomConnectionsMy MomObsessedPrintPhasesSheetsGet RealMockingbirdProjectorsKill A Mockingbird Author:Winona Ryder
“It's difficult for me to write in English as it's not my first language, but French is even worse because of my father's influence and because the comparisons that I - not even other people - would make.” PeopleWritingFirstsFatherLanguageDifficultInfluenceComparison Author:Charlotte Gainsbourg
“My influences are vast and varied. I was into classic rock at the same time that I was into hip-hop. It was just that hip-hop was the first music that I got really really into. Rock was right on its tail.” FirstsInfluenceRocksHip HopHipsClassicHopsTailsClassic Rock Author:Paul Banks
“President Carter famously said the hostages were the first thing he thought about in the morning and the last thing he thought about at night. It was a downright foolish thing to say, because it made the people holding the hostages realize that they had an awful lot of influence over the United States.” PeopleFirstsMadeSaidStatesLastsNightPresidentRealizingUnitedMorningUnited StatesInfluenceFoolishAwfulCarterHostagePresident Carter Author:Ted Koppel
“First of all, there are Persians and Arabs. The fact they share a religion, a Shiite religion, does not mean that they're close. It doesn't work that way. There is a relationship because there is a long border. There is going to be trade between them. They should have a relationship. They want to make sure that - though, that there is no undue influence coming from Iran or any other country in the region.” WayWantShouldFirstsMeanLongDoeCountryFactsShareInfluenceShould HaveTradeBordersRegionsIranOther Countries Author:Joe Biden
“Agnes Martin is a big influence in my work actually, when I first saw her, these fine grids.” FirstsBigsSawsInfluenceFineGrids Author:Robert Barry
“India went through a dramatic revolution after the '90s when our economy started opening up for the first time and Indians were now experiencing the Western life, if you will. Drugs and sex and a lot of those influences came in as the economy stabilized, and we were growing up and experiencing that. The Indian writing market was very small at that time. Our literature was very attuned to what Western audiences were interested in, so everybody was writing about the slums in India and magic realism or stories about Hindus and Muslims and partition.” IfsWritingFirstsStoriesLiteratureSexAudienceEconomyGrowing UpGrowingMagicInfluenceRevolutionDrugFirst TimeIndiaWesternOpeningIndianDramaticRealismOpening UpSlumsPartitionMagic Realism Author:Karan Bajaj
“My first encounter with yoga was in 1969 with my older brother Doug. I was thirteen years old, and he was eighteen. He'd learned about yoga in California on a surfing trip, and when he came back to Houston, Texas, he introduced me to this new stuff he'd learned. I'll always be grateful for that positive influence at an early age.” YearsFirstsAgeStuffInfluenceBrotherYogaGratefulCaliforniaEncountersTexasBe GratefulSurfingEighteenThirteenHoustonOlder BrotherNew StuffPositive InfluenceThirteen Year Olds Author:David F. Swensen
“Obviously, the person who had most influence on my career was Ken Thompson. Unix was basically his, likewise C's predecessor, likewise much of the basis of Plan 9 (though Rob Pike was the real force in getting it together). And in the meantime Ken created the first computer chess master and pretty much rewrote the book on chess endgames. He is quite a phenomenon.” FirstsPersonsBookRealTogetherForceCareersPlansInfluenceMastersComputerBasesChessPhenomenonPredecessorsEndgameUnix Author:Dennis Ritchie
“My work first engaged with the early russian avant-garde; the paintings of moholy-nagy, el lissitzky's 'prouns' and naum gabo's sculptures, but in particular with the work of kasimir malevitch - he was an early influence for me as a representative of the modern avant-garde intersection between art and design.” FirstsArtInfluenceModernDesignParticularPaintingEngagedRepresentativesSculptureAvant GardeIntersections Author:Zaha Hadid
“With respect to Russia, my principal approach to Russia has been constant since I first came into office. Russia is an important country. It is a military superpower. It has influence in the region and it has influence around the world.” WorldFirstsHas BeensImportantCountryInfluenceMilitaryOfficeApproachConstantRussiaAround The WorldRegionsPrincipalSuperpower Author:Barack Obama