Music is my life, it is a reflection of what I go through.
People always accuse me of being motivational in a way, like it was a bad thing, but that's just how I was raised. My mom raised me in a positive environment, with lots of love in my heart, and that reflects in my music.
My mother gave lots of good advice and had a lot to say. As you get older, you realize everything she said was true.
The fans of 'The Hunger Games, ' of the book, are very passionate. It's funny: Even at my concerts there are people holding up 'Cinna' signs.
I'm half Jewish, I'm half black, I look in-between. I dress funny. I play all these different styles of music on one record. It's like, What is he doing?
There are so many people that don't believe in themselves and don't have faith.
I've woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I'm listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.
A dramatic thing, the first time you stand up to your dad.
For the last few years, it's been so chic for everybody to be miserable. Like if you're in with the cool crowd, you can't be happy.
People see my photos and think I labor over my image and I'm this cool, brooding artist. But I'm just having fun with it.
We're getting so pulled in by computers and technology, and our kids have their face in the computers all day. The human relationship is being diminished by this.
I always try to keep the circumstances in my life fresh. I like to change the physical environment I live in, change the people around me and try to experience things for the first time. I think that keeps one on their toes, creatively and spiritually.
Change is growth. For me it has been a very spiritual and musical rebirth.
I am not trying to change the world. I am just offering my gift that God gave me, and if somebody is moved by it, that's beautiful.
I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself.
It was amazing to me that, all of a sudden, I was hearing my music on the radio and coming out of cars.
You can be around 100 people and be completely alone. People don't realize what it's really like.