Quotes About Inspiration

I wrote 'My Name is Red' just to remember painting, where the hand does it before the intellect. When I'm captive to it, I'm a happier person. Kierkegaard tells us that a happy person is someone who lives in the present; the unhappy person, someone who lives either in the past or the future.

People who write happy songs are often unhappy.

That was the impetus for me to do music or art, because I knew if I didn't try when I was young, then I would get to be in my 40's and I'd be really unhappy that I hadn't.

I'm very unhappy when I'm not writing.

I need to find creative diversity because if I get stuck, I get unhappy.

I know there are writers who feel unhappy with domesticity and who even manufacture domestic turmoil in order to have something to write about. With me, though, the happier I feel, the better I write.

I believe as musicians and artists we have an obligation to our souls. What that is? Only each one of us knows. I can speak for myself and say my obligation is to be happy. When I'm happy, I make great music. When I'm unhappy and my heart is broken, I may make brokenhearted music, but it still sounds good.

You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just lets you get on with it.

I think that there must be a point of self-immersion in a story that is a point of no return. You get far enough in that the story has really touched you to the core and deeply troubled you and made you unhappy and fearful, and then how do you get out of that? I'm a writer, so my way of getting out of that is to write.

I'm less crazy and unhappy when I'm writing.

When I think about Edmonton, Silver Street and Pymmes Park, the old people whose faces are so unhappy, it pushes me to be better. I want to be better to help places like this.

When I see a contemporary deliver a good performance, I get inspired to do better. I don't sit and mull over other people's successes; that can be unhealthy.

I listen to unhealthy amount of Kanye. The Fugees. Also, 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.'

There's such a rich trove of unheard Howard Ashman lyrics that we're so blessed to draw from.

I just don't want any songs to go unheard.

It is a dream come true to become a UNICEF National Ambassador.

My role model was Sachin Tendulkar as a kid. I feel very proud that I have been able to follow his footsteps and become a UNICEF ambassador like him.

I've seen what power women have in unification, and I would love to create co-working spaces and networks for female entrepreneurs.

I guess artists are living inspiration. There's something very pure about a person that fantasizes. I like hearing their stories, watching them work. Their take on the world interests me. It's not unified.

Well, in brief, I was discovered by a lady called Beth Boldt. She had also been a model. She used to take pictures of the girls she found, and she took a picture of me one day in my school uniform, and it all kind of started from there.

I find my best writing time is actually 6 A.M., before the detritus of the day - the fish fingers and the school uniform and dogs and bills - have had a chance to clog up my brain. I can usually get 500 words done before 7 A.M. But it is difficult, and the Internet, and social networking, are terrible timesucks.

I saw Angus Young running around in a schoolboy uniform shredding on the guitar and just thought, 'That looks like a cool job.'

Beetle Bailey is actually me, in uniform. I've got about 20 characters, and they're all after friends of mine.

Growing up in the Bay Area, I played early on with these quartet groups who set guidelines for me. I remember the guys would all have the same clothes and shoes, like these uniforms. I was in awe.