Quotes About Artistry

I create music for myself first of all because if I'm not happy with the music I create, I can't make anybody else happy.

I consider myself first of all an artist. My work is about my creativity - why I create and not for whom.

I was a musician first of all.

I'm very comfortable singing myself, first of all. Secondly, there's a certain disconnect when you write the song and you have someone else sing it for you. And it's kind of like a fakeness about it.

I'm not a cineaste. I've made so few films. Sometimes it feels each one is the last one or the first one.

As animation directors, you're the first one on the film; you're the last one off, and you get to learn from and touch every department throughout the whole journey. I don't know any other job in the world that's like that. I don't think live-action is like that. It's a very different sort of experience.

So what's so enticing about doing a play is that you get to do that thing that got you into acting in the first place... There's a real attraction to being able to play, to just play. And that's something that theater affords you.

If music sounds dated, it means it wasn't very good in the first place.

I've been writing a lot more folky, country type stuff. One of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place was because of Darrell Scott.

When people ask me, 'Are you a singer?' I say, 'No, I'm not a 'singer' - but I love the craft of singing,' going in and finding out what that means or why the hell I'm singing in the first place. My thing is really the craft of it.

My thing is, for artists who are having success, being given an award shouldn't be the thing that defines you in the first place.

One of the first things I want do when I start writing music for a film is to create its own sound world, its own music world.

I always want to cut every single line, possibly, that is mine from the script. One of the first things I do on any script is to shred, shred and shred my lines.

I loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me. For the first time I think it's really me.

There are a lot of people who can now see me as an artist for the first time.

Acting is an expression of imagination. No firsthand knowledge is necessary.

Other than fishing and a little bird-hunting, all I do is write.

I write the songs, go in and record them, then I listen to everything and decide how it all fits together.

I really feel like I honed in on a sound and a style of writing that best fits me.

I think finding a character starts in hair and makeup, fitting room. That's where it all kind of falls into place.

My favorite singer is Ella Fitzgerald.

Growing up, I had a natural love for women like Diana Ross, Mary Wells, Ella Fitzgerald. Then I got into Dionne Warwick, Nina Simone, and Patsy Cline.

I go back to, like, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Elvis. I listen to everything.

I usually just dress myself. I typically make something or buy something and fix it up. I really like to spend my money on accessories like bags, shoes, belts. I don't really spend on things I can make.