Quotes About Artistry

God is most proud of creation as an aesthetic thing. You have only to look at the exquisite harmony of sky and trees and moon and stars to see what a good job God did, aesthetically.

for what is art but the act of infusing matter with the breath of God?

Feathers needed, swan preferred.

Any time you turn off and let someone else make any artistic decision for you, you make a mistake.

I'm incredibly grateful for the time I spent with STOMP and even more so for the skills and awareness I developed as a performer during that time.

It's always exciting when you can go into a mode where you can be both spontaneous and choreographed. Sort of in control and out of control at the same time.

I equate inspiration with desire – the desire that moves us to be artists in the first place. To attempt to make a painting without this motivation is a waste of time.

John Cusack is a dream. I did one one-on-one scene with him and we got to shoot it so many times, and he did it different every time.

I just want to keep making music, recording and trying different things. I don't want to do the same thing all the time.

It's pointless to be critical of your stuff once it's done. I don't spend a lot of time agonising over it. It's of no importance once it's finished.

Rembrandt was way ahead of his time. It's as if he was painting an amateur theatrical, or a professional theatrical, in his studio. It's a kind of performance.

I don't make summer jams or albums based on time or seasons; my goal is to make quality music, timeless music. I'm not looking at the calendar.

I want to sell tracks but at the same time I want to stay true to the music I like. This is why I love the underground scene because they can stay true to what they want to do.

It bugs me that people think my songs are personal because it means I have to explain myself all the time.

I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better - deeper, more nuanced.

These last few years, working with Tim Burton, it's been the best time I've ever had.

So, the result though is by the time I've got something, it's been worked over so many times that although I do make changes as the end, often by the time I've gotten it, it's pretty much completed.

Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin together again for the first time.

For me music is so passionate. I have to give it my all every time I go onstage.

When I feel like every day when I get up I'm writing songs, that's the time to make a record.

Isn't today a day to devote to craft? Isn't tomorrow? Isn't every day, routinely, until the end of time?

A Mozart symphony is very much like a Pixar movie - in the sense that Pixar movies are hugely successful because they operate on several levels at the same time.

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.