Quotes About Artistry

I do take class because I still dance, and yes, I do slip into class with the Royal Ballet from time to time.

I didn't want to make a record that was just guitar and voice, that was just the technology available to me. At the time, I remember thinking, "I am making a Faust album." That didn't translate.

Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams. All of them are different styles, but those are the songs that make the times. They're the songs that last through time.

Sometimes songs need extra time and space to really play themselves out, and some songs it's like, this is all you need, a straightforward thing.

But for the first time, we haven't made a huge leap forward in sound from our last album. Fans who own Kid A should be able to get their heads around it.

There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn't do that. I'm not a pro.

If I like a film, I usually appreciate the way it was made the first time.

I do dance music, and I can be pretty camp myself from time to time.

There were many good actresses in my time like Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds, but I was the only dancer.

I only listen to my music. I'm just analyzing it. Critical. Seeing what I like what I don't like. Say what I should have said. What I could say next time, what I should have said, things like that.

I did go through a Goth thing, but that was a long time ago. I just like artists that shake it up, that piss people off or make people think or rattle the cage somehow.

Being on stage is the best part of my career. I just say whatever comes into my head. It's the only time I feel grown-up and in control of things.

That's kind of the weird thing about Salad Days. I had to block time off from touring and tell my management and label like no press, no nothing. Let me make an album. You guys are running me dead.

I thought it was time to get a group together and the first person I thought of was Wayne Shorter. I called Wayne and in the meantime, Wayne called me to make an album with him, which was Super Nova.

Every time I would open my mouth to sing, everybody was paying attention to me. It became a habit.

Long, flat expanses of professionalism bother me. I'd rather have a band that could explode at any time.

Throughout my career, nervousness and stage-fright have never left me before playing. And each of the thousands of concerts I have played at, I feel as bad as I did the very first time.

A songwriter's supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time

Having the savvy to know what you want to say, how you want to say it, and what music you want to say it over comes with time spent and wisdom gained in a music career.

Every time someone come out with an album don't change the whole style up but don't do what they are expecting. Surprise them.

The quality of artistry is the capacity to assume innocence at will, the quality of experiencing innocence as if for the first time.

You realize that the first Bryan Ferry album was pretty good although at the time it seemed a bit cheesy.

Country music is still your grandpa's music, but it's also your daughter's music. It's getting bigger and better all the time and I'm glad to be a part of it.

It is true that I visualize music and, as I visualize music, I have some sort of story running in my head, all the time.