Quotes About Artistry

If any single human being is responsible for all this nonsense I've done with my life, it's Ray Harryhausen... In 'Kubo,' you can see some of his influence throughout.

I prefer that animation reach into places where live action doesn't go, and it seems like all of animation nowadays is trying to go where live action is.

You have to be dope; you have to find an audience and reach that audience with your identity and your message.

When you write a song, you don't ask if it's good or not, or if it's gonna sell. When you write a song, you ask whether you've reached deep inside your heart and whether it's honest.

'Center Stage' reached people that, as live performers, we would have never had the opportunity to reach.

The first record was basically a quick, fast record. The second record, we were going for more of a poppier sound - like a heavy pop sound. For 'Rocket to Russia,' we'd sort of reached our pinnacle. We'd gotten really good at what we were doing, so that's like my favorite record - that's a really good record. It's just great from beginning to end.

We kind of reached this point in life where we don't really want to put out anything just to put something out. We really don't want it to be like, 'Two years are up. You've had your break; now do another record and get it out there.'

I reached a place where I wanted to make more music, but I didn't know what I wanted. So I stopped labeling music by genre and just got into a studio to be creative. Now I write whatever feels instinctive.

That concerns me, that we're reaching out for perfection, when country music has always been about imperfection.

I need to get as deep as I can into my own heart to really make people connect and react to the music as passionate as possible.

You never know until a song comes out and becomes what it becomes, obviously you can't predict how the masses will react.

My respect for artists is very high. I think to get the most out of them, you have to liberate them. I think part of liberating them is saying, 'Come up with something brilliant, new, and fresh. Stop thinking based on what has been beat into you by executives or publishers in terms of what's going to work and what's not. Don't react, just act.'

I can't imagine how people will react to my music. For me, it's a really fluid process from one record to the next, but it's really up to the listener.

I am not like Hitchcock, directing the reaction of the public or the audience. I don't like that. I think this is some kind of fascism - 'You need to react like that.' No. No. It's not like this; everyone needs to react as he can.

As an artist, I want a reaction.

I'd rather create something that gives people a very strong reaction than create a show that someone looks at and says, 'Hmm. Fine.'

One day, I just got up to read a poem and started singing. I looked around - the reaction was great. And I said, 'Oh, boy. I like this.'

This is my definition of selling out: When you change what you do or do what you do as a reaction to someone else's expectations or lack of expectations.

Sometimes I'm not even really quite sure why I do what I do - do I do it because I like to show that I'm an educated person to exploit these certain things artistically and, in my opinion, in a very smart way - or am I just a punk rock brat that likes pushing people's buttons and relishing in the negative reaction? I can't tell.

I have a lot of reactions to the outside world that I don't feel like would be appropriate for songs: things I'm not interested in writing about, things I don't want to think about any longer than 15 or 20 seconds.

Going as far back as 'Dexter's Lab,' we've always had these sequences with no dialogue. The interesting thing is those sequences got the biggest reactions.

You are often asked to explain your work, as if the reader isn't able to work it out. And people always try and label you by your work.

I'm just trying to keep things rich for me creatively and for the readers who follow me.

When I'm writing, I am lost in my book. Except family and close friends, I don't care about what critics, publishers or readers might think.