Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment.
Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
What is so real as the cry of a child? A rabbit's cry may be wilder But it has no soul.
The sense of jubilee for music and what we're making is always genuine.
... imaginary gardens with real toads in them ... ... if you demand on one hand, the raw material of poetry in all its rawness and that which is on the other hand genuine, then you are interested in poetry.
Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-butter and hogwash, I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and bully.
I feel like trying to write a song in order to be a big hit is just not something I'm interested in because it's not going to come from an authentic place of expression.
I think the key for any kind of artist - and this transcends music - is a certain degree of authenticity and sincerity.
I like real art. It's difficult to define 'real' but it is the best word for describing what I like to get out of art and what the best art has. It has the ability to convince you that it's present - that it's there. You could say it's authentic... but real is actually a better word, broad as it may be.
Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul.
I've never been that comfortable with the acting thing. It's difficult for me to separate what's really going on. If there's kissing, that's kissing. I'm not acting; I don't know how.
Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.
There are times, especially on 'The Five,' where I've lost control for a moment. I always feel bad about it, but those always seem to be the times that people realize, if I'm mad about something, it must really matter.
If you would have me weep, you must first of all feel grief yourself.
I think it's important to add a personal aspect to your music - that's what makes it authentic at the end of the day.
Love is more than a word. It's a noun and a verb.
When love's the culmination of everything you feel, then it's the only thing that's precious, it's the only thing that's real.
When I act, I act with my skin.
When you cry, you don't look very attractive; you look snotty and blotchy. People seem to manage to cry quite prettily these days, and to me, that smacks of not being very genuine.
My heart aches watching Donald Trump... pouring his heart out... How can anyone doubt his sincerity?
Everything must come from the heart, must be lived.
I always make a distinction between nostalgia and sentimentality. Nostalgia is genuine - you mourn things that actually happened.
I realized that comedians of the day were operating on jokes and punch lines. The moment you say the punch line, the audience either laughs sincerely or they laugh automatically or they don't laugh. The thing that bothered me was that automatic laugh. I said, that's not real laughter.
No man can smile in the face of adversity and mean it.
I think when people listen to music, they can truly feel authenticity. For me personally, as a listener, there's certain songs where I'm just like, 'Man, I know that person was really feeling that.'
