Quotes About Artistry

The book that made me want to be a writer in the first place was Gone with the Wind - I read it and wanted to create a whole world out of words, too.

You have to define how much of a cultural politician you are as a performer. There are times where I just want to remain a civilian.

The main focus for me is not trying to find duet partners. It's about just making great songs. I want most of my album to be in my voice, because it's my point of view.

Many a good poetic vein is buried under a trade, and never produces any thing for want of improvement.

I don't like to make fluffy little songs, but now I want to make some light songs.

I go through a lot of bad stuff, because most of the stuff that's written is pretty bad. But occasionally something comes along that's good, and I want to do it.

I would never want something I'm wearing or the way I'm dancing or something to overshadow what I'm doing. I'd rather grab people's attention with my voice.

For a long time I didn't want to do a solo thing, but there comes a point where everyone else is going outside of The Strokes and The Strokes filtering process.

I don't fake my music. If I want to be known for anything it's for creating honest music. Noting is fake or will ever be fake about the lyrics and pain in my music. My music I live it.

I don't think a lot of people listen to their old stuff, do they? I spent a long time making it, so I don't really want to spend much time listening to it again.

I feel like what I'm best at is being a musician and a performer. I want to use that to help people who are good at starting nonprofits.

There are so many great artists that are doing interesting things, that I don't want to focus on boring people.

I became this guy that does drum programming, and I don't want to be that guy anymore. I don't want to sit in front of my computer for 18 hours programming 16 bars of music.

My paintings don't simply represent what I see; they present viewers with what I want them to see.

I've never really played golf. With the sax, I learned technique well enough so that it feels like part of my body, and I just express myself. That's where I want to get in golf.

I guess now I view music as my career. I want to do it forever, regardless of whether or not it's my means of living.

I find the more I DJ, the more ideas I have and the more music I want to make.

I would love to make an album full of ballads. For a listener, I want to have variety on there.

I'm terrified of therapy because I don't want it to mess with my creativity.

Every fashion photographer is completely different; the fact that they are so different is what makes it fun. You don't want to get bored.

Labels don't mean anything to me. I'm trying to play as passionately as I'm able to. If they want to call that cool, that's fine. Just spell the name right, is the formula.

I'm beginning to see that just knowing the piece is not enough. Having a clear technique is not enough. Having a broad repertory is not enough. I want desperately to get past all those things.

It's very hard when you're doing a new play that you believe in, and you want to tell the story in the best way possible.

If it works for the piece of music, I'm going to use it. I don't want to be limited any more than [Bob] Dylan wanted to be limited by not using an electric guitar.