Quotes About Artistry

Sometimes, the songs that really affected me were not from the artist catalogue of their music, like the song 'Thunder Road' by Bruce Springsteen. I never got into any of his other music, but that song, to this day, is in my top three lyrical masterpieces of all time.

It was never so much the heavy metal thunder that got me. I was into players who played with taste and did these walking bass parts. If you can play like that, it really opens up the music. You can't just pound away. After a while it's like, 'So what? What else you got?'

Ever since I began to compose, I have remained true to my starting principle: not to write a page because no matter what public, or what pretty girl wanted it to be thus or thus; but to write solely as I myself thought best, and as it gave me pleasure.

I think the music comes first, then comes the fashion, and thus, the lifestyle. I believe it starts with music, and then the person delivering it delivers the lifestyle, the fashion. Madonna is a great example of that.

I still picture myself as a student of the music. I'm always trying to learn new things. Music is just what makes me tick.

There is actually no such thing as an Artist type. 'Artist' is just an economic designation, a box you tick on a form. We are all people, and we are all creative.

I tick so many boxes. Thats why I get a lot of gigs - because I can do the lectures, I can do the television thing, and I dress up, and by the way, Im an artist as well.

The biggest difference between me and other artists out there is that they'll put anything out to sell a record or sell a ticket.

If you were to hold me to a standard of, 'What are you doing, singing about a scratch-off ticket at your level of success?' then my music's gonna be ridiculous.

Musicians by and large make a living with a relationship with an audience that is economically harnessed through performance and ticket sales.

There are a lot of bands coming up now that are literally thrusting their soul, their passion into something that fans can pay for a ticket to go see, and they know it's going to be awe-inspiring.

I still believe in putting something out and not asking people to buy the record, then buy a ticket to my show and then buy a t-shirt and then a, like, copy of the show they just saw on CD. That's undignified to me.

Once I was checking to hotel and a couple saw my ring with Blues on it. They said, 'You play blues. That music is so sad.' I gave them tickets to the show, and they came up afterwards and said, 'You didn't play one sad song.'

It's a strange thing, this idea that for some reason, if a lot of people like what you're doing, it's therefore not very good. We use the phrase that a band have 'sold out.' Just so you know, if you're doing a gig and you sell all your tickets, that is a brilliant thing to do.

I think we make too many records. One record a year is crazy to me. But some people have to sell tickets. The label has to meet their quarterly number: 'We need a record a year.' All of a sudden, the tail's wagging the dog. It's not the music; it's everything else making the music. That's just backwards. It's wrong.

If you want a good play and a show, you need time to prep for it. Artistes must be allowed to practice without being charged for the practice sessions. Let the auditorium charge for the tickets.

A lot of people don't watch cinema. They can't afford movie tickets, they can't go to theatres to watch cinema, they are not on social media. How do you reach out to those people as an artist?

I was on the set when I was five years old with Spencer Tracy. A lot of what I learned growing up in terms of artistry is very clean, very tidy, very organized.

24 hours a day, I'm thinking about what we can do with this artist, what I can do myself over here, and how we can tie it all together.

If someone tied me down and made me answer the question, singer, actress, clothing designer, I most likely - it could change on any given day, but mostly likely I would lean towards singing. It's where I feel most like myself - on stage singing.

To be an actor, it's really tough to find your own voice because you're always tied to other characters and going to auditions and trying to get a job, hoping they'll pick you. And I think it's just so important for an actor to have something else that's creative, something that's creative and you're in charge of.

On 'Krit Wuz Here,' I had a record called 'Return Of 4eva' on it. And then that launched me into doing the actual 'Return Of 4eva' project, and 'Return Of 4eva' had a song called '4eva And A Day.' So it's like, all of my music has somehow tied into the entire story.

It's not my goal to make so many movies. It's just sort of a natural process, and I'm just doing my job. And I'm not tied to any genre; I'm willing to do anything. I just keep going.

The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency - half tiger, half poet.