I feel like your city - with hip hop in particular, because we're always beating our chest and shouting where we're from - your city is just as influential as your parents. Even the grimy, hardcore gangster rap from New York - KRS-One and Wu Tang, the stuff acknowledges it.
Definitely just growing up in general influenced me; Detroit happened to be where I was. I feel like the city definitely has made an impact on my life and made me who I am. Detroit has an unmistakable soul - nobody can duplicate the soul we bring to the game. From Motown to J Dilla to Eminem to anything.
When I'm in L.A., I have salads, sandwiches, and soups all the time. Eating in New York, I feel like I have to have pizza and bagels while I'm here!
You can take the girl out of Vegas, but you can't take the Vegas out of the girl.
Moving to New York made all the difference in my creating this new series with Ellie Hatcher. I love Portland, and it's always going to be one of my favorite cities, but it was getting to the point where, after I'd moved to New York, I couldn't write as specifically about Portland any more.
Everyone's looking to the urban scene for inspiration now.
I knew Berlin would have to become a kind of character in my new book, 'In the Garden of Beasts'. I had felt likewise about Chicago when I wrote 'The Devil in the White City' and Galveston with 'Isaac's Storm'.
I'm from Chicago and it's a huge influence on me.
I love Baltimore. This city has made me the man that I am.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft
I grew up in Vancouver, man. That's where more than half of my style comes from.
When I think of myself, I think of Toronto. My music would never sound the way it does if it weren't for Toronto.
A suburb is an attempt to get out of reach of the city without having the city be out of reach.
Los Angeles produced the Beach Boys. Dusseldorf produced Kraftwerk. New York produced Chic. Manchester produced Joy Division.
There was a lot of stuff happening in Havana that was being heard and appreciated by New Orleans musicians because of this situation. And vice versa.
I am pretty antisocial and have difficulty communicating with other human beings. I know that if I were in Philly I'd still mostly be hanging out in my apartment reading books and playing with synthesizers. That said, I grew up in Philly, went to college in Philly, lived in Philly afterwards for a while - almost every formative experience in my life has happened in Philly. Whether I like it or not, Philly is all over everything I do for the rest of my life.
My entire personality changes when I'm in L.A.
I always say Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is my biggest influence. But for painters, I like many, many painters, but I love Francis Bacon the most, and Edward Hopper.
I definitely feel like a native New Yorker. My personality was formed there.
In New York, the theater is a destination point. In Los Angeles, no matter how provocative, how successful, how star-studded the theater event may be, it is, at best, a second-class citizen.
In London and New York, people just naturally seem to dress really well, and that makes me want to do the same. In Seoul, too; in L.A., I'm just like, 'Eh.'
The reason I became a better player was because I came to Philly.
Starting my career in London was no accident because the city and the industry here are all about theatre and drama, and I respond well to that.
Paris is a mighty schoolmaster, a grand enlightener of the provincial intellect.
I think what sets a New York rapper apart from other rappers from other places is just being from New York.
