Jonathan Jackson: I've been playing music since I was 12. I love perfo...

I think acting is a gift. I look at someone like Ben Kingsley, and hes incredibly charismatic, even when hes not acting. Hes an incredibly hard worker, and he has a very specific system that he does with his work.

Jonathan Jackson

hard-work acting thinking

"Silence Of The Lambs" is definitely very frightening.

Jonathan Jackson

frightening lambs silence

That's what rock music is, I think - constantly searching for authenticity, and being as honest as possible.

Jonathan Jackson

rocks honest thinking

Gratitude is the root of joy.

Jonathan Jackson

gratitude roots joy

Not judging people is the fastest way to peace.

Jonathan Jackson

not-judging judging-people way

I'd rather live forever in Heaven than a place where there's terrorism and hate.

Jonathan Jackson

hate forever heaven

I walked away from this movie thinking how important it is to have a genuine selfless love for your children. You can really mess kids up if you don't have the right kind of love for them.

Jonathan Jackson

kids children thinking

The challenges change depending on the song. There are some songs where the lyrics are really a challenge and then there are other songs where the lyrics are there and the music is a challenge. And then you've got rock songs where the challenge is the tightness of the arrangement with the band. The music and the lyrics are there, but it's a challenge to get the arrangement correct. So I wouldn't be able to point to one thing. What the challenge is changes all of the time.

Jonathan Jackson

music-is challenges song

"Alleluia" song is a street hymn in the sense that it's all about culture.It's almost a juxtaposition of the prayers of the world and the prayers of the culture and how we sometimes put an "amen" after crazy things. So it's really just that tension between madness and simplicity.

Jonathan Jackson

crazy prayer song

Some of songs are autobiographical and some of it is more telling a story from someone else's perspective. It's healthy for me to do that because, oftentimes, it can become too narcissistic if I'm trying to express myself all of the time. My problems are what I'm going through and sometimes it's nice to take a step back and feel what someone else is going through and that can help.

Jonathan Jackson

perspective nice song

Sometimes song happens all at once where you sit down and the lyrics and the music just come out. So there definitely isn't one way that it happens - there are a lot of different things that take place.

Jonathan Jackson

different song sometimes

Being joyful is a choice.

Jonathan Jackson

being-joyful joyful choices

When I manage to keep my center, it's usually because I've taken prayer seriously.

Jonathan Jackson

manage taken prayer

I think acting is a gift. I think certain people for some reason just have a gift that they were meant to perform.

Jonathan Jackson

acting people thinking

I like films, I like movies, I like playing different characters and working with different actors, and filming in different places. I like movies, because it's kind of a combination of every art, it's like it's picture, it's story, it's music, it's kind of like a clash and a collide of every art. It's really neat.

Jonathan Jackson

different character art

I don't really have an ambition to become the Rolling Stones, or anything like that. For me, it's just playing music is kind of a transcendent, amazing gift, so when people come together and they play, I think it's a real special thing.

Jonathan Jackson

real ambition thinking

I would rather portray the hero, if it's a really great film. All my favorite fictional film characters are heroes, such as in "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Robin Hood."

Jonathan Jackson

hero robins character

Often times, if a character is pretty straightforward, he or she is not as interesting to portray.

Jonathan Jackson

straightforward character interesting

There's nothing better than actually getting to watch the person and see his or her mannerisms.

Jonathan Jackson

mannerisms persons watches

My family took a vacation to Universal Studios when I was really young. Me and my brother Richard - who's also an actor - were both really intrigued by seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff of how films are made. We kind of begged our parents to get into acting.

Jonathan Jackson

parents me family brother

I've been playing music since I was 12. I love performing live.