Quotes About Artistry

See, I have two selves in me - a musician and a composer.

You've got to be an editor in order to be a good composer.

As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people.

I admire Turgenev, Camus, Proust and Shakespeare, but I've also learnt a lot about writing from composers and artists.

We love what we do. We're passionate about making music and as composers; that's just who we are.

Many composers are asked to come up with three great songs in ten days... But it's rare for us to pull that off. You cannot force the brain to make a great song and I'm very scared of doing bad work.

I don't meditate before I play or compose, but I see playing and composing as meditative acts.

I'm trying to focus on my job. I don't think that being famous is a job. My job is composing, singing, performing, but not being a star.

Isn't composing music akin to film direction?

I would love to work with Joanna Newsom on a ballet. I think that would be amazing. She has a gift for orchestrating and composing, and I think she would be really engaging to work with.

I've never loved composing, because I feel like other people do it better.

As a writer, I always tend to take the liberty and the great artistic luxury of a composite form of writing.

I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.

You have to know composition to be a good improviser.

The Smiths hasn't been equaled. That goes for the composition of the songs, the lyrics, and the performance.

Composition is definitely what I'm born to do, and it came last.

It was always my dream to do non-film music, where I'm the voice and face of my composition.

I won't change myself and compromise myself, but I will make my music to be in the conversation with everyone else's.

There's no compromise to me in what I'm doing. I'm trying to make songs that I love and make them feel a certain way and go to certain places. It just so happens that a lot of 13-year-old girls like that.

There's a lot of compromises, but that's what a great record should be, really.

I really believe in not compromising your art. I feel like I've never compromised my art.

The name 'con artist' really does capture it. They're artists, and I have admiration for all artists.

One thing that I've often done under the Projectors is build an album from a central conceit.

It's a little bit more like I want to give this to the people that are really into it first - I don't have a lot of desire to be like Bon Jovi or something like that, I really want to concentrate on the music.