Quotes About Artistry

Zamajobe is great. She's a terrific singer from South Africa.

Alan is a great guy, a terrific guy. We haven't worked together since then, and he's always working with different artists. I think he sees different dimensions he can see from different guys.

After all these years of saying the same thing about the Alvin Ailey company - terrific dancers, awful repertory - I'm finally accepting the inevitable: I'm not going to change my mind, and they're not going to change their ways. And why should they, given their juggernaut success all over the world?

I could bear being in the charts and being on everyone's car radio 10 times a day. I'm just terrified of... a lot of people I respect have done it with a real little 'ditty' and that was the end of it - that was all they were ever known for.

I remember thinking, 'I can't act.' Pretending to be someone else is a terrifying thought. The thing was that, along with other people, I could create a whole world. I felt absolutely right directing.

The stage is my territory, my boxing ring. That's where I'm free.

I know that I can sing really loud. It's like having that really big Evinrude engine on the back of your fishing boat. But I've been trying to be more dynamic with my voice, and not just singing on 10 all of the time out of terror.

Terry Gilliam, he's a really interesting and amazing film maker, and when he gets it right, it's really powerful stuff.

Working with Terry Gilliam was magic - I've been watching his films since I was little.

Working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis was crazy.

I didn't sound anything like Capote at the screen test. It was more like Bob Dylan. In his early years. With the flu.

When I listen to music, there's usually some aspect of that music that I like, and that's what I take and try to bring into my own music. Bringing in other musicians to collaborate with is a good way for me to test out new ways or make music that I might have not discovered on my own.

When you sample something, you're using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that's already great, that's already stood the test of time, that's already special. When you're trying to do it all from scratch, you're writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.

I was two years old when I saw the mandolin for the first time, and I just loved it. I just loved the sound of it, the shape of it even, and the way it looks. And I still love it, which is a testament to something.

As we get further into our career we're figuring out how to become more efficient as artists, and doing so many different things is testament to our cohesiveness as the Roots.

Leon Theremin's original designs are elegant, ingenious and effective. As electronics goes, the theremin is very simple. But there are so many subtleties hidden in the details of the design. It's like a great sonnet, or a painting, or a speech, that is perfectly done on more than one level.

You begin with the possibilities of the material.

Creative people are notoriously the slowest to adopt new technology.

Don't give me any money, don't give me any people, but give freedom, and I'll give you a movie that looks gigantic.

When you play, never mind who listens to you.

You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.

You can't sing Beethoven from the neck up --- you'll bleed! Beethoven is not precious. He's prodigal as hell. He tramples all over nicety. He's ugly, heroic; he roars, he lusts after beauty, he rages after nobility. Be ye not temperate!

I had no desire to be famous I just wanted to make the greatest music ever made. I didn't want anyone to know who I was.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.