Quotes About Artistry

Rarely ever see or meet the writer during shooting.

I rarely like the music I make. It's like nothing's good enough. I just stay in my head, waiting on the next best beat, so I can do something better than what I did.

I get to be in a room with other actors, but I never, or very rarely, get the chance to be in a room with another director.

I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he's up there with Bryan Ferry.

I don't know where I'm rated. I don't pay attention to that. I'm really so just all into my craft. It's not a contest. I try to play the best.

I'd rather play jazz, I hate rock and roll.

I would rather die than be a serious artist, or a fake artist.

One of the things you do when you make a piece of art is you try to make the world you'd rather be in.

I use the golden ratio to create the perfect shape on my clients' faces.

What a fine line there is between artistry and insanity. There's no formula for it, and I think a lot of people when they're around you - even those closest to you - when you're in that whirl of creativity and you're grabbing those things out of the air, there's no rational process.

I just sit down at the piano and rattle it off.

Acting is probably what I'm best at, but there are certain stories kind of rattling around in my head that I like the idea of developing over time.

Raven was the first drag queen I had ever seen. Her and Detox in L.A. when I was baby. I respect Raven and Detox so much.

The Beatles were raw musically, but I think they really had something.

I kind of think that's the best way to operate; even when I'm in sessions writing with other artists, I'm always pulling from the kind of emotions that are the most raw in my own life and offering them up in the studio.

When hip-hop was new and raw, it was all about being an MC. You wanted to be respected as a lyricist. But as the years passed and hip-hop became big business, hip-hop became like country, rock and pop. And so you now have people who write the songs for rappers.

It is the artist's function not to copy but to synthesise: to eliminate from that gross confusion of actuality which is his raw material whatever is accidental, idle, irrelevant, and select for perpetuation that only which is appropriate and immortal.

My favorite thing as a performing artist is to get a pile of raw material from a writer who says, 'Will you help me make this real?' There's nothing like starting from scratch.

I think of Ray Harryhausen's work - I knew his name before I knew any actor or director's names. His films had an impact on me very early on, probably even more than Disney. I think that's what made me interested in animation: His work.

Working with stalwarts like Satyajit Ray, Soumitra Chatterjee and Rabi Ghosh is an experience I always cherish.

I was lucky to work with some of the finest filmmakers - Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, Asit Sen.

Little Richard was it for me, man. Later, it was Ray Charles and Bobby 'Blue' Bland, B.B. King.

Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal.

Music is more Ray J. When you act, you're playing a different person. I like the music end, basically because it's me.