Quotes About Artistry

I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.

You know what the material is so that you never play it the same way twice.

When I sing a tune, the lyrics are important to me. Most of the standard lyrics I know well. And as soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice.

I don't like to write the same song twice.

I always record far more than I can use. There's probably twice as much recorded as comes out.

It's hard to decide how to match words to music. It's not like it's twice the work. It's always difficult for me to explain to the composer what I'm looking for. I'm not a professional; I lack even basic knowledge about writing music.

I think I've only kissed a woman on screen only once or twice before in my whole career.

Many movie stars or American Idol contestants sort of fall into theater... and say, 'Oh, yeah, I would love to do theater.' And then they get here and say, 'Oh, wait a minute, this actually is a craft!' It's not just show up one day and do it. It's show up eight times a week, twice on Wednesdays and twice on Saturdays.

When I first started fingerpicking, the first thing I learned was 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright' from Bob Dylan.

In the very beginning, I kind of had this hip-hop, cut-and-paste approach to music. The first record, especially, was from looking at people like DJ Shadow and A Tribe Called Quest, and I think a phase that a lot of people go through when they start sampling is to go out and stamp on twigs and try to record that kind of stuff.

Twigs has been my nickname for years, and I guess a lot of people close to me called me Twigs, like, as a nickname. Before I even did dancing properly or anything, like, substantially creative, I was still Twigs.

I'm a fan of FKA Twigs, The Weeknd. I love that kind of ambient R&B. I feel like it's just another soldier in the war to blur the lines and make things to where it's good music and bad music.

I know from teaching, that actors want to act. Even the subtlest actors can do a little too much.

I was trying to find my way into the music business still, but I didn't want to portray something that I wasn't. I really wanted to be just me.

I think it's an interesting thing to have to produce an album that you'll want to listen to for 50 minutes.

I just love to have fun with music, and try to find songs that say something that people want to hear.

I wanted to make a jazz record. I didn't want it to be a standards record.

I wanted to be a songwriter.I didn't so much want to be a performer.I more grew into that just from being a songwriter.

I think that for the position that I'm in the strongest thing that I can do is produce pieces that are exactly the thing that I want them to be.

I'm making the art for me first. I'm making it because these are the pictures I want to see. I'm making pictures that don't yet exist.

I was listening to this record by Paul Desmond called First Place Again. It's incredibly gorgeous. There is nothing better that you would want to get from music than you get from that record.

One movie is only one movie. I want to have a lifetime of making films.

I have a constant sort of melancholy approach to acting that fuels me. I want to do everything.

I am not a composer of music; I sing pieces which have been written for me which gives me bigger freedom to search for pieces I want to record.