This is a little off subject, but I'm interested in those cases where someone is barking up the wrong tree, or misapplying their talent.
When you go and create something, you want to believe in it. If they don't, we're barking up the wrong tree. But when you believe in something and you see other people believing in it too, it just feels like you're doing something right in the world, and that feels good.
If you were a kid actor, if you had any plans of being an actor as an adult, you were really barking up the wrong tree.
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? ...people who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.
You spend so much time barking up the civil-rights tree, you don't even know there's a human-rights tree on the same floor.
I wanna hear it, I wanna hear it from each and every one of you. I wanna hear it from the kids, the men, the women. I wanna hear it from every single person in this arena. I want you to stand up out of your seat, I want you to get up and do what you should have done a long time ago! I want you to admit that you were wrong! All of you! You all were wrong! Each and every single one of you! I made it!
When we talk about settling the world's problems, we're barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess. We're not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
To campaign against colonialism is like barking up a tree that has already been cut down.
When we shout at the oak tree, the oak tree is not offended. When we praise the oak tree, it doesn't raise its nose. We can learn the Dharma from the oak tree; therefore, the oak tree is part of our Dharmakaya. We can learn from everything that is around, that is in us.
How much I can learn from a tree! The tree is my church, the tree is my temple, the tree is my mantra, the tree is my poem and my prayer.
If you're going to play bass, then play bass how you play bass. You can learn technique and theory, but we want to hear what you have to offer.
The tree looks like a dog, barking at heaven.
I like playing at public schools. I like when there's more of a diverse audience. I'll play wherever people want to hear my music, and I'll be glad and grateful for the opportunity, but I'd rather not play for a bunch of white privileged kids. I'm not meaning that in a disrespectful way; you go where people want to hear your music. So if that's where people want to hear me play, I'm glad to play for them. But I'd rather play for an audience where half of them were not into it than one where all of them were pretending to be into it, for fear of being uncultured.
So, on the whole, I'd have to say that no, people don't change, but they CAN learn to behave differently. I want to believe otherwise. If you have an argument that says I'm wrong, I'd be glad to hear it.
I can hear what I want [people] to play. If you don't hear what you want someone to play, then you can't tell 'em.
I didn't want to play a lawyer. I didn't want to play a doctor. I didn't want to play a single dad. I wanted to do something I felt I could learn from, something that would be a challenge and something that would not dry up.