Bruno Mars Quotations

Every time I try to write a song, when I sit down and think I'm going to write, I really want to write a song, and it never works out. It's always when it hits me unexpectedly on a plane or right before I go to bed, something like that.

I'm hoping that "Nothin' On You", "Billionaire" and "Just The Way You Are" - songs that I produced... I hope that it's a warning for people. I hope it lets them know that I'm a little unorthodox when it comes to genres and styles.

My father's a musician and my mother's a singer. My dad's originally from Brooklyn and he was a Latin percussionist so I've always had instruments around the house. He used to have a show like a 1950s rock and roll show with Little Richard music. They would do doo-wop songs and stuff like that.

I'm a big fan of the young 1950s Elvis when he would just go onstage and control the whole environment.

I've definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it's a little more raw.

Songwriters, you have to work - you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song's going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.

My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.

In pop music, the public usually see the results - the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours - but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won't make it.

There are no record companies in Waikiki.