Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Michael McDonald

When Kanye gets to a point where he can actually put a couple of notes together either vocally or two bars of valid music playing an instrument, then he might have a right to criticize somebody else.

Throughout my career, there has always been an element of surprise. Sometimes there are moments of disappointment; sometimes there are moments of surprising success.

Looking back, I sometimes wish I had done things differently. But if I had, I'm not sure that I wouldn't have proven to be my own worst enemy.

In order for life to be more than a frustrating game of one-upsmanship, one has to remain emotionally open and vulnerable.

When I listen to songs, to this day, I listen to the chords and the groove and the melody.

I was attracted to black music for the same reason that I loved those old Irish ballads. Both were social statements of sorts, and both were indigenous to their respective cultures: Ireland, where my father had grown up, and towns like St. Louis along the Mississippi River, where I was growing up.

I'd like to do something with Frank Ocean, you know, and I love working with Thundercat, and I'd love to do more with him.

I suppose I hit my lowest point in the early to mid-80s, which is when things really spun out of control for me.

I didn't own a record player when I was younger. I just played every day after school and then started gigging around town. I heard bands and songs through friends of mine, but a lot of what I picked up on was learned by traveling through college towns.

I've always felt like the Forrest Gump of the music business. I've been fortunate to work with a lot of great people.

I love Coldplay.

I love to write songs, but they don't come easy to me - I spend a lot of time writing really dumb stuff that I have to look at the next day and think, 'God, what was I thinking?' That's my process, is just to go through a lot of dumb stuff and hope that, after a lot of hard work, I'll find a good idea.

I truly cherish the time and experience with friends that I have been making music with for so many years, even decades now.

I wish I wrote songs like Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Don Henley, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, so many of the songwriters I admire. They have the ability to say things.

Whether artists know it or not, I think we're all a little influenced by what came before.

I think that's the one thing we all hope for in this life is we leave something of a legacy, that's meaningful to someone else, when we leave here.

I've always been an artist that has had a problem with genres, staying in the box, and being told what I had to be.

I felt a real kinship with Steve Bruner. He's one of those guys that is so prolific that he has a hard time keeping up with himself. I'm the opposite and move at a glacial place.

Frankly, I think it's flattering to be compared to someone like Michael Bolton, who I think is a phenomenal singer with a spectacular range.

It was surprising, really, that 'Minute by Minute' did as well as it did and as quickly as it did.

We've reached a point where people don't even know how to look for anything fundamentally important anymore.

My musical education started before I could see over the dashboard, just listening to the radio and cranking up our favorite songs as they came on.

I have friends who write all the time, and I envy them terribly.

I write about humility, because it's something I hope I one day actually possess.

We try to promote the Christmas season and remind people that it is a season of peace. That's what the season's real meaning is about. No matter what religion you are, there is that point in time where we should celebrate that idea of peace and humanity.

Laziness can be virtuous in the right setting, I guess.

Since the '60s, we've lived so much in an age of quick fixes that the culture itself has become a quick fix.

Aretha Franklin is and will always be a national treasure.

Aretha Franklin holds a significant place in the collective heart of America. She's a singular example of what we represent at our best.

Like everyone else, I have a lot of things I'd like to do that I'll probably never get around to. But for the most part, I live day to day.

Rap is like any other genre: There are the people who are very creative with it and do remarkable things... and then there's that whole quadrant that sounds alike. There's great stuff that's taken the genre to a new level over the years, and 'Regulate' was one of those tracks that was kind of a landmark.

There have been albums I've recorded in the past that have had success, and then there have been ones I've had extreme faith in, and they ended up as commercial failures.

My friendship with The Doobie Brothers never really changed. We're all still good friends, and I really admire those guys a lot.

There were certain Ray Charles albums and a couple of early Marvin Gaye records that I used to listen to with a vengeance. That's how you forge a style. It excites you, and you lean toward it almost unconsciously. I was also a Beatles fanatic, but I didn't emulate them the way I did the R&B artists.

While making any record, you look for the opportunity to bring someone who will help generate something special in the music environments you create.

I've come to learn that music speaks for itself.

Beck is obviously a consummate musician. He plays instruments, many instruments. He can make his own record without having a fleet of computer operators onboard.

I've been set up with a Twitter account, and I just never use it.

I went to Catholic grade school, so we sang a lot of religious songs: 'O Holy Night,' 'Silent Night.'

I use Facebook, but I find that I'm... if I put up a picture of my dog there or a sunset or something, I get a million hits. If I mention anything to do with my career, three people respond. And/or if I say anything political, I have to duck afterwards. I try to be selective.

Honestly, I've never thought of myself as a mover and shaker of songwriting.

Hey, I'd love to have a hit single, but if that doesn't happen, I'm not going to complain.

No matter what anyone else thinks, if someone appreciates what you do, whether it's 10 people or a million people, it's all good - because the only reason you make music is to have someone appreciate it.

Where I grew up in St. Louis, Saturday was country music day on television. We'd watch the Bill Anderson show, the Willie Nelson show, the Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner show, and always the Grand Ole Opry. My parents were fans of that music, and my friend's parents would pull the TV out and watch those shows on the porch.

I'm always like the guy who wants to date the pretty girl so bad, and when he finally gets the chance, he blows it because he spends too much time worrying about it.

My first rock band was called Mike and the Majestics. I was about twelve, and my older sister Kathy was the manager. There were three of us: me and a friend on guitars and a drummer. We were young, but we played for a lot of fraternity parties, plugging both guitars and a microphone into one little amplifier.

In one way or another, all my songs are about the necessity for trust.

For me, a lot of my fondest memories of being in the music business were being in the studio with The Doobs and being part of that organization and being a part of that music.

One of my all-time favorite Christmas songs, I have to admit, was the Chipmunks' 'Christmas Song.' I remember playing that song over and over.

Being in the studio, for me, can be a miserable experience - I can really psych myself out.

I love writing Christmas music. It's some of the easiest songs to write... You draw from your own memories - it's kind of a wellspring of inspiration, in a way. With other songs, you know, you spend six months just trying to figure out what to write about.

I hope to capture the public's imagination, but I can't live in the anxiety of that.

When I first heard Thundercat's stuff, I thought, 'Man, this is so original.' A lot of his ballads, to me, had such a beautiful harmonic, almost classically Hispanic, feel or, like, Brazilian kind of feeling. I don't think he does that intentionally or anything. It's just I think those are his influences on some level.

I'd say that Ray Charles is definitely the biggest influence on my singing. Also Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

Each generation tries to disassociate itself with the last generation. And then, about three decades later, people kind of start to maybe appreciate what you might have done a while back that you don't even realize you did.

When I get in a bad mood about anything, I realize, 'Hey, I'm still working. It could always be a lot worse.'

'Livin' on the Fault Line' was kind of a commercial disappointment for us, although it seemed to have a certain buzz with the smaller fan base we had.

The 'Motown' detour for me was almost like it wasn't work. It was more fun than work, and that's all it takes for me to not be very responsible to other things I should have been paying attention to.

Most times, lyrics are the last thing I listen to, being a musician.

In the '70s, there was no shortage of people taking themselves too seriously, as 'artistes,' if you will. I think we all had a tendency to do that at some point in our career. So looking back on that, it's fun to laugh at it.