Quotes About Artistry

I'm just kind of trying to make the best stuff I can make.

Being in a band was so fun and exciting, but I was just kind of focusing more on performance and wasn't really writing the songs - I didn't really think I had a voice.

For some music, lyrically, the best move is to keep it simple in what it is that you are saying, and just kind of come across in your rhythm and the way that you lock in on the music.

My records are not informed by whether the music is going to work live. I just kind of make the music I want to make and worry about how to deconstruct it for a band after.

Playing music is just one of the best things. I can't retire.

I couldn't pick just one defining breakthrough role. I like to think that they're all a part of me.

I always wanted to make something that was bigger than me, that wasn't just one person.

I cannot be confined to just one or two kinds of music.

Playing guitar was a calling, but I never realized that it was going to be a career. It was just something I did out of love.

Guitar playing is just something that came to me and is really second nature now.

Oh yes, much, because music is just something that comes to you. You don't question it.

I've always been singing, and acting was just something that happened.

Writing is just something I've always done. It's just kind of the reality of who I am.

Writing music is just something that I was born to do.

I've never really cared if I was famous for my music. It was just something I had to do.

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.

My work has always been the thing that justifies my life.

When no one's buying your records, it's easy to justify selling a song. But once you start selling records, you can't really justify having two songs in Cadillac commercials. It looks greedy. And it is greedy. This whole music thing should be about music.

From day 1, Justin Timberlake has been a huge inspiration for me.

I got a chance to work with Mystikal and Mannie Fresh and Juvenile and all these people as I was growing up, and so that really influenced everything I do.

I'm just the biggest Kanye fan. I think he's a genius.

It could be interesting doing something with Kanye.

I don't really write any of my raps down. The same, Kanye don't write any of his raps down. Common. It's easy that way. For me, personally, I figure I will lose some of the inspiration in the time of me writing it down, or I'll say it a certain way because I wrote it a certain way.

Working with Kanye is one of the greatest things ever. It's also one of the most nerve-wracking things ever. He's, like, the most critical, particular, artistic person ever.