Quotes About Artistry

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.

I expect the audience to come up to my level. I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass.

Sometimes the best music is when you just put it out there.

It's not instant composing; it's not following any kind of a formula. All you do is hear music in your head and reproduce it.

You explore beautiful songs & create your own interpretation of them.

Jazz is a music of great achievements but speed and chops serve a different function in jazz.

Lenny Breau had the ability to reach into your heart.

For me the visual is just as important as the music. I would never record without my red lipstick. It was my way of getting into character, sort of like Method singing.

People can't just listen to the music and have their own imagination and take them where they wanna go.

I have to feel connected before I record and the song has to spark something inside me. Very few songs do that. I guess it's a good process because I love all of my music.

A musician has to find a way to make his music mean something special - spiritually or however you can

The music should be first, not the ego or the personality or the style.

What I really miss these days in music - is the music. I prefer to listen to melodies and songs, not just sounds.

The greatest DJ is one who can live within the formula and make it sound .... as if he producing and pulling the music all by himself.

Having a simple career as a musician who liked music was good enough for me.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they're stuck in that safe place.

I'm not a great inventor from scratch. What I do is to use, steal, acquire, reproduce or re-cycle music from other musicians.

I'm trying to give people the chance to put out their music without the bullshit pressures of other labels.

Real music doesn't always win Grammys

I can't imagine ever not making music, making albums, writing songs, doing shows. That's all I really know, and that's all I really do.

The ability to make music is a gift that you're born with; it's not something you can learn.

I enjoy anything to do with music.

I don't want to get rich. I just want to play my music for the people.

Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.