Quotes About Artistry

If there's one thing that I've learned from both Spike Lee and Tarantino, it's that you can wear your influences on your sleeve but at the same time invoke new energy and new flavor.

Spike Lee listens a lot. He's one of the quietest creative people I've ever met.

To work for months and months and months, you kind of spill blood and give your heart and soul to something, and then you just sort of let it out into the universe and hope that people like it.

I wrote a song called 'Four Times A Lady' for Destiny's Child, and it was perfect. But then I had to spin it back and change all the lyrics to a guy's point of view cos I thought the track was too good to give away, heh heh. It's Craig David now.

The restaurants express the spirit of the chef, the spirit of the city, the country.

When I write a song, the music comes from my spirit, which is very playful and optimistic, but then the lyrics come from my head, which is in a different space.

I'm kinda a first take dude. The first time, cut that mic on, and the spirit is there, and what comes on the mic - I mean, even if I'm mumbling, I like to keep a lot of that initial thing that comes out. Cause that's the spirit.

Companies that are design-led understand that design is not a deliverable; it is a profound manifestation of the human spirit.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm now in the business of making spiritual records and using my voice for that purpose.

The music business is really a spiritual business whether we know it or not.

I don't consider myself an artist necessarily, but craftsmen or people in the arts, their spiritualism is sort of when you're writing well or performing well or doing whatever you do well, there's an element of that that's either God-given, a talent that you're not necessarily responsible for.

I've always thought of music as profound spirituality because you can use that music and that spirituality for personal gain or for the good of the world, the good of humanity, and for the good of your people.

I think being in the world of R&B creates a sense of home, and I think it's important to have that sense of home and spirituality within your music.

The feeling that's in your heart all the time comes out spiritually in your voice and the music.

Doing multiple character work is athletic in every way - vocally, physically, spiritually, and mentally. With a show like 'Passing Strange,' I usually lose about 12 pounds.

I think all any artist or person wants to do is grow spiritually, emotionally, professionally and mentally.

I'm proud of all the movies I've made. They're not sequels, they're not franchises. And the reason I pick my films carefully is that I don't want to spit on my life. I like to think of myself as more than that.

Shoot, there's a committee to tell you everything at a record label. You definitely have to know who you are if you want to look like you at the end of the process. We've all seen people get record contracts, and by the time they're spit out by the machine, we don't even recognize them.

A remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good in spite of all the people who say he is very good.

The freedom of just going into the booth and spitting and freestyling to release whatever was on your mind was alluring to me.

It's believing you can push through the exhaustion just to be able to sing after you do a cartwheel or a split.

There's more to playing the guitar than being able to split your legs.

Movies and television have a way of using a soundtrack not just to create a mood but to literalize it. You could always count on a master class in splitting the difference between artistry and obviousness during the so-called Blaxploitation era.

Everybody is different. Some people like to share more. I just wouldn't want to spoil someone's opinion of me by them knowing me as a person instead of an artist.