Quotes About Artistry

I'm not oriented by money, to be honest. Everybody thinks we're in the music business for money all of the time. But that's not true for me.

People used to talk about my lyrical content and not about my music, and to be honest, I think I have got lazy with my lyrics over the years.

To be honest with you, it was almost like I could do no wrong after 'Maxinquaye.' And when I was putting together 'Nearly God,' I was thinking, 'Will you stay with me if I put out something that radio cannot play?'

There's got to be something you want to tell and that's the engine which spurs all of the work you have to do in order to create the story, but you have to love some sort of nugget of what you're telling to be a filmmaker.

I don't have favourites, I think, when you play, you have to be like a prostitute, you have to love the piece you are playing. Even if you don't like it, you have to play it as if you would like it. Then you are a good interpreter.

I think, first of all, you need to love what you're doing, and then this helps in the comedian for its part in everything-but the moment you enjoy what you're doing, you try to express yourself, to find your way, and every time is different, of course.

Well, what's interesting, I try not to think about the radio when I'm writing a song. I want people to love the song, and that means it might not be exactly thinking about the radio, but it's thinking about your audience and saying, 'I want people to like this song after it's done.'

You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theater because it is an unmerciful life. It's six days a week. It's eight performances a week. And that's doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.

We obviously need to make money to survive, but we aren't going to sacrifice our creative integrity to do anything that doesn't feel like us.

During 'Idol,' I wasn't expecting anything. I just wanted to survive the competition, but my album and my music are a big part of who I am. Hopefully it translates well and I keep growing as an artist.

As long as artists can make something, artists will continue to survive.

Today, music is great for entertainment, but it is lacking soul; it's lacking substance, and it's difficult to find good stuff. There are too many corporate interests. It's not about the actual music because it's about the corporation, and music just becomes part of a package.

The standard of music has come down. There is only screaming and shouting in songs today and I don't want to sing such songs.

There's a million new people in the studio every day creating new stuff so I really had to be on my toes with this one so I could get it out before somebody else could.

You learn to control every aspect of your muscles, your face, your toes, your fingernails. And that is how you tell a story, through movement.

I'm definitely gonna do another solo record at some point. 'Flamingo' wasn't just me dipping my toes in the water. I really loved it. It was successful, and that helps, but I love those songs, and I miss singing them.

The image people have of comedians staring defiantly over a stationary line of good taste is simply inaccurate. We don't approach this line, put our toes over it arrogantly and then scamper back to safety. The line doesn't exist.

I just kind of, like, put stuff together. I don't really try to make it seem like a 'look.'

I pick and choose what I want to put on what. Instead of just dropping a single, I like putting projects together.

But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.

I honestly feel like I've been mostly toiling in obscurity until a little bit after 'Day Of the Dog' came out.

I've always felt like there's a certain amount of doing what I do, and performing and making records and doing interviews and photo shoots and that, that are kind of a necessary evil of getting my music to people's ears to hear. Over the years, I've just become more tolerant of that.

I love to sew. But when it's something that's being repetitive over and over and over again, it takes a toll.

I don't think Tom Hardy has an actual voice of his own. Except maybe the one in 'The Dark Knight Rises,' as Bane.