Quotes About Artistry

I really don't find revivals very interesting because I like new work a lot. I feel like if you're going to pay me, then let me do what I do and let me try to solve some problems. Let me try to make something fly. Why would I do something that everybody has already done the hard work on? But that's me. Tons of people do revivals really well.

It's really hard to go into a creative process and not think, 'I might or might not get nominated for a Tony.'

It's no accident that Tony Hopkins is a wonderful film actor.

You look at Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bob Seger. All they ever wanted to do was go out there and entertain, and I'm the same way.

I'd love to work with Michael Buble, with Tony Bennett, with Damian Marley, with Andrea Bocelli.

I never, ever want to be in a position where people are sitting round a table, saying, 'We've got this book. I don't really get it, but we paid for it, so we've got to sell it.' I'm not Tony Parsons; that's not right for me.

I made Tony a person. For me, Tony was real. I made him become a human being, and that affected the animation and everything.

I think the Oscar is the big money award; that means you've made it in a money sense. The Tony has always represented - to me, and most actors that I've talked to - an artistic award. It means you're an artist and not just a popular performer.

Tony MacAlpine not only plays guitar, but is a stunning classical piano player, so he can show how that influence molded his guitar playing.

I leave the genre labeling to other people. I really do. If I were to think too hard about it, that would stifle you creatively. If you think too hard about who other people want you to be as an artist, it stops you from being who you want to be as an artist.

Rap is really just too conventional. Everybody does the same thing. No one ever pushes the box.

My nana was an actress, my mom was an actress, and my sister, too. So because I was surrounded by it, it really came naturally.

With Metro Station, there were too many people trying to control us. That's not the thing you should do with an artist, I think.

All I can say is that I've had too many people in the hip-hop industry really like what I'm doing. I know where I'm coming from, and the album speaks for itself.

Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.

I've never commercialized my music. I've seen that ruin too many people who think two-minute ditties are the answer.

Sometimes a piece of music in the score isn't effective. When a score is too well finished with too many elements, sometimes it's too much.

I didn't want to play it boring and safe. I also didn't want to innovate too much. Second albums, man, they're even scarier than first ones.

I think too much of the music industry is for the lawyer and accountant mentality.

The artist is inherently a romantic to some degree, and as such, I believe in a muse. But I don't try to analyze too much where it comes from.

I try not to punish the audience by making them listen to too much acoustic guitar.

When you start putting too much thought into it, the music starts getting too revealing. You don't need to know all my inner thoughts.

I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.

It's dangerous to buy into praise and criticism for what you do when you're trying to present your music to people. I don't ignore it completely, but I don't dwell on it too much.