Quotes About Artistry

With poets, the choice of words is invariably more telling than the story line; that's why the best of them dread the thought of their biographies being written.

Some directors are like poets.

I found poetry at 12 and 13 and, lo and behold, learned that my attorney father had a background in poetry - as he wore dashikis and Afros in the '70s and named his kids Arabic names. He was a poet and a lot like The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron and all of these folks. He definitely was an artist.

You have to write some poetry, first of all, to decide if you can become a lyricist. I was born in a family of poets.

My heroes were Dylan, John Lennon and Picasso, because they each moved their particular medium forward, and when they got to the point where they were comfortable, they always moved on.

A film is a film and it has to be good to be inspired. That's number one. It can be Italian, French, German, American. It's moving images in front of you and with a strong director who injects his point of view and artistry.

'Mission: Impossible' is fun. But for myself as an artist, I'm really more concerned with the human condition, the human experience, especially from an African American point of view.

You don't want to make a movie just to make a movie. You better have a point of view.

The thing I try to tell people who are just starting in the business is to listen to yourself, trust yourself, and be kind to yourself. And do the work to cultivate who you are and what your point of view is. Don't try to be like anybody else. That's what will make you an interesting artist.

I'm quite drawn to women artists who use themselves in their work. There is a very feminine point of view, the use of female archetypes. I love artists who play with those kind of things genuinely.

I'm just like a photographer or a director. Of course I have an opinion, but I don't think my opinion, or what I want to say... is so obvious 'cause that's not my job. My job is just to give a point of view, not more than that.

The only time we actually even think about our music is in interviews. We have to explain why we do what we do, even though it seems pointless to us to explain it. The rest of the time we just do what we do and don't worry about it.

I think if you're going to cover a song, you should definitely take it apart and put it back together as if you wrote it. I don't think you should sing it the same way that the artist sang it - that's kind of pointless.

I use colors to bring fine points of story and character.

We started playing music because of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I'll never be satisfied in classical ballet. It'll never be good enough. I'll never be happy with most of my product.

If you learn classical guitar, you play Bach, and then John Dowland. He's the greatest. He's interesting for many, many reasons.

It takes a lifetime and a half to master the classical guitar.

For me, it's classical music I started with and I admire Jacqueline du Pre.

My songs are classics.

People classify things and that's fair enough. But if somebody wants to make something different, that doesn't make them any less of an artist.

Women who are clever actresses have longevity because they're amazing actors, not because the camera loves them.

I like to just make flex music. So when I do make emotional music, it's hard for me, because I feel like I'm cliche. But I guess cliche is the best thing sometimes, because it's real.