There are, indeed, few merrier spectacles than that of many windmills bickering together in a fresh breeze over a woody country; their halting alacrity of movement, their pleasant business, making bread all day with uncouth gesticulation; their air, gigantically human, as of a creature half alive, put a spirit of romance into the tamest landscape.
I've worked with Woody Allen twice and he was like, "Whatever you want to change, it's up to you. If you want to change the words, make them your own. "
A lot of Woody Guthrie's songs were taken from other songs. He would rework the melody and lyrics, and all of a sudden it was a Woody Guthrie song.
I liked the American folk style of Woody Guthrie.
I am defined also by Woody Allen's films and Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch and Julian Schnabel or Almodóvar, or by Guillermo del Toro, Iñárritu, Cuarón. Even if we haven't worked with them, we are all defined by their filmography.
In writing songs, I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.
You could listen to Woody Guthrie songs and actually learn how to live.
What I'm doing is basically the same as Bob Dylan did with folk songs and Woody Guthrie songs, the same as folk music's always done. I'm not going to sing about ploughing, but I'll write a song that sounds like it should be about ploughing.
If Woody Guthrie set the bar for American songwriters, Bob Dylan jumped right over it. No one I know will ever come close to possessing the beauty of melody and the use of language that Dylan shares with us, with ease.
I don't usually experience that because there are few people who intimidate me, but Woody was one of them.
The only thing I really recommend, if you're starting out in stand-up is to not try to copy anybody else. You can be influenced by people. I was influenced by Steve Martin and Bob Newhart and Woody Allen, but I never tried to be someone else. I always tried to be myself. And the reason people are successful is they're unique.
I always knew that sooner or later there would come somebody like Woody Guthrie who could make a great song every week. Dylan certainly had a social agenda, but he was such a good poet that most of his attempts were head and shoulders above things that I and others were trying to do. . . . If I had an address, I'd send him a birthday card saying, 'keep on going. '
When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry,' we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen.
I was definitely nervous turning up on my first day to shoot with Woody Allen.
Woody Allen, when we did Vicky Cristina Barcelona, said to Rebecca Hall, "Do it one time happy, one time sad, and one time indifferent, as I won't know where you should be until I'm editing this, in terms of your emotions. "
I'm not like Woody Allen like, "Oh my god what's going to happen? Ooh Ooh Oohhh. " I'm just high-strung. So I do need to do a lot of stuff.
Woody Guthrie was what folks who don't believe in anything would call an anomaly.
I did admire the comments and the music of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. And that didn't fly too well in the Deep South. It was not quite redneck enough.
I wish I was sort of someone like Woody Allen who can stage everything in one long master shot, no coverage; just, you know, that's it.
I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.