Quotes About Artistry

I'm not ugly, but my beauty is a total creation.

I think I make ugly sexy and attractive. If I didn't do music, the girls that like me wouldn't like me, but I think I make ugly look good.

I made a point when I made the Ugly Casanova record to not write a song and then say, 'This is a Modest Mouse song' or 'This is an Ugly Casanova song.' The people who were open to it not being a Modest Mouse record liked it.

You can't listen to what people who aren't musical have to say. When Anytime was released, I had bad reviews, and at first I was hurt. Your songs are like your children. You don't want to hear, 'Your kid is ugly.' But I knew the record was good and it would sell.

When I sit down to write a song, there is no filter. I'm not trying to write for anyone or anything specifically. It's just trying to capture a little piece of your soul - even if it's a really ugly part.

I love Billy Joel's music, but let's put it this way - I think this is a frustrated, ugly man.

People say to me, 'Why do you do these ugly parts?' And it's because at the end of the day, I'm an actress, and I crave the dark and the light within one job.

I like to play the guitar and the ukulele.

The only instrument I play myself is the ukulele.

I would love to sit down and do only the ukulele with a very small crowd. I would also like to sing the super poppy songs and all the background stuff. I think both would be an interesting path.

I started writing once I got the ukulele.

I think the ultimate compliment that someone can give you is that you're a technician.

I think my playing has been orchestral throughout the years, and this is another way of expressing that. But I primarily see it as the ultimate accomplishment of a musician. Composing makes me feel like I've finally gotten all the way up the ladder as a musician.

The thing that fuels me the most is the desire to be on stage. And singing is the ultimate way of expressing all the emotions that I have inside.

The word processor is a better tool than a quill pen because you can do so much more with it, but on the other hand, what you have to say and how you say it is the ultimate determination.

John Mayer would be my ultimate collaboration because he's just the man. He has basically captured all I believe in with music.

I've always felt that Balanchine is my ultimate teacher. I learn the most from observing his work and also dancing in it.

Those nations of artists, finding their own individualism, and kind of standing against the world: to me that's the ultimate nightmare. I want to get lost and diffused in the world.

I was one of those guys, you know, playing and singing, and there was no reason for me to write a song, because there were so many beautiful songs out. And Bob Dylan was always the ultimate songwriter, and nobody could ever write a song as good as him, and nobody ever has written a song as good as him.

To be earning a living as an artist at any time, any place is kinda the ultimate gift that you can receive from the universe, and I'm very much aware of that. I get to do exactly what I want to do.

I'd like to think you don't stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

My ultimate goal was to make the music that I wanted to make, and give shows. I was never going to get a major label deal - I never wanted a major label deal - so I was really free to express myself.

When I go to a gig and I hear a song that I really like, a song that hits home to me or hits an emotional nerve, if I could ever recreate that for someone, that would be the ultimate goal.

That's, to me, the ultimate goal - to disappear inside another character and bring them so fully to life that I've convinced other human beings that it's a real person.