Artist Quotes

With the new ways of getting music out, you don't need a label if you're a legacy artist.

Secular artists see themselves with performance; they are more self involved, presentational.

The man of genius whether as artist or thinker requires a mass of accidental variations to select from and a rigidly selective process of attention.

I think these days, as an artist, you have to be slightly entrepreneurial. ...Nobody really sells records anymore.

I felt that, in retrospect, there was a time in the late Seventies, after I had a string of hits and successes, as a performer and a recording artist, that I wasn't saying anything.

I think that it can be said of a lot of artists, and myself included, that we made the same record over and over from the beginning.

I think as any artist you always want to grow; you always want to get better.

I've got this thing where I always kind of diss the older stuff and favor the newer stuff. I mean, it's not just my thing; every artist or musician is like that, I guess.

Audiences tend to dig the earlier stuff by any given musician, and the artists themselves always tend to prefer the thing that they're doing now.

My advice to new artists is to embrace a broader concept of timelessness than vintage or retro.

There's a great legacy before me. Many, many fantastic actors, artists, writers have come before me and created Superman. I'm very honored to be able to be a part of it.

I'm not a natural comedian, as an artist. I studied comedy growing up. I would watch Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, all day.

I like to make records sound good. I'm more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what's the point?

... the great artists ... do not want security, egoistic or materialistic.

For me as a solo artist, I never want to be a nostalgia act.

I think anyone who is an artist or writer or owns their own business or whatever can agree that when you come up with something on your own, it's an addictive feeling.

That's the artist's role - to strike out always for something new, to break away, to defy, to... grapple with the unfamiliar.

I'm sometimes critical about other artists who come out with something different until maybe I hear the music. If the music is there, then they did their job, and I'll enjoy the CD.

A lot of bands are still just bands that artists ask to get involved, but a lot of artists are using sound they create. This is different from referencing music.

The artists of the past who impressed me were the ones who really focused their work.

In the 20th century, artists did a great disservice to fairies. They painted fairies in a way that was shallow and trite. So when people see my stuff, they suddenly realize the depth of fairies.

If a good editor will let me tell my story with the right artist, I'm happy.

I've worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren't.

And I had worked at the comic-book store almost by accident, because I was deciding to make a living as an artist, be it as an art tutor or illustrator, and that's how I wanted to make my living.

It's fun to see how other artists adapt my work.

I have a lot of different influences. Everything from Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani, The Clash, Kanye West - just a lot of different artists.

I'd studied theater growing up and loved that, but didn't have many examples of artists around me.

I remember the excitement of being a new artist. When up and coming artists ask me like, "Any advice you have for me?" I always say, "Take it all in because you'll never be a new artist again".

The invitation for artists to compete to see who can be the most charitable is a wonderful thing.

It's just strange to think about...whether I'll be an artist or what I'll be doing.

I think in times of crisis it's the artists' responsibility to dig a little deeper.

Most artists I know consider themselves to be phonies, along with the feeling that there's something that you're doing is essential, essential to communicate, and deeply, deeply real.

I don't know many artists who are not crazy.

To retain his dignity, an artist must live in opposition. He must be critical of his country. If not, then he is worthless.

I've always wanted to be a real universal artist, one that every type of audience could relate to.

You are the artist and the art.

Beyonce is such a visual artist. This was just trying to figure out another side to her that could be fun and young and exciteful and a great video.

That is, an artist who creates lots of work probably experiences prolific days and slower days.

Artists must literally go into a zone of intense seeing so the subjective and objective almost fuse together.

the independence of the artist is one of the great safeguards of the freedom of the human spirit.

I'm not such an artist type that I can't handle the real world. I read the financial pages, because most people don't talk about art.

All my siblings became artists. One's a novelist, my brother is a painter, my sister was a costume designer.

I think when people watch a lot of artists, they're expecting this showiness, and I'm cracking jokes with people. I'm heckling back. I'm interacting.

When you listen to the music, you can also see the film or read the article, and it's all part of the same journey that you get to take with the artist you're interested in. It's a balancing act.

I want to experiment with new techniques and become a "traditional baroque artist."

As an artist, I'm really inspired by everything around me - from travel and art, to friends and family, social voices in media and politics. I get a lot of inspiration from daily life.

I was one of the first post-studio artists. I used to do my works in the streets. I used to find them in the streets, and I used to leave them in the streets.

I've never been a representational artist at all. Most artists have been representational. That's when you discover yourself.

Isn't it wonderful to be an artist whose works have mostly been lost?

Most artists don't know a hit. You can say I want this one to be a hit but it never become that way. The public decides that for you.