Quotes About Creativity

James Blake, Jai Paul, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Sohn, Kwabs, Sampha, Lil Silva, and Brandy, always. They all have soul. Deep soul.

It's weird to me when an artist comes in, and the label says, 'We want him to sound like Chris Brown,' but he says he wants to sound like Sean Paul. There's a huge disconnect - it's like we're making a product.

When I heard that Paul Feig was directing an all-female 'Ghostbusters,' I was prepared to do anything to be a part of this, to be a part of what sounded like an incredible project.

Well, Sean Paul we've always wanted to work with.

A-ha is not me, Paul, or Magne: it is its own individual that has its own identity and characteristics. It is a result of a particular meeting point between the three of us.

I was always a show-off with my friends; we used to have interpretive dance nights to Christina Milian and Sean Paul where we'd film it.

To somebody else saying all I need is 10 million dollars, then I've probably made it. But there are Paul McCartneys walking around with $500 million catalogs. That's pretty much what I want. And that's just music. That doesn't even include directing and writing of movies and all of the other things that I want to go on to do. So I have a big dream.

I've never rapped. I karaoke-d 'Paul Revere' from Beastie Boys when I was 15, 14 years old, but that's it.

I have about 10 or 12 guitars, some of which are in non-standard tunings. Mostly I play a clone of my 59 Les Paul. Gibson made that for me when I first got mine, and I take that on the road. Its really great.

Sometimes I have really good ideas, but it is always Paul's language that makes them work. Without him I'd be more clinical, more mundane. What I achieve with him is different to any thing I could ever hope to achieve with any one else.

I think of talent as being God-given. I know that contradicts what a lot of people believe, but that's how I see it. I think the Beatles were meant to be, you know? So when I listen to Paul McCartney, I think, 'Here's the person that God gave the gift of allowing him to write 'Let It Be.'

I would love to work with a Beatle: Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr.

Paul McCartney would be the end all, be all. To work with Paul would just be amazing.

I don't feel like we have that Paul McCartney gene, and I think the cool thing about us is that we know it.

My thing was, I loved music. I played music: I played the saxophone. So the little bit of music knowhow I had, I tried to implement that in every thing I did, from my style, my cadence, the way I tried to pause and stagnate it; that all came from John Coltrane and listening to jazz albums. Trying to rhyme like a jazz player.

I want to pave my own path artistically.

I feel like I'm just trying to pave my own lane and just kind of make my own sound.

Sometimes I feel like 'Avenue Q' or even 'Book of Mormon' might not have happened without 'Urinetown.' 'Urinetown' sort of paved the way, just in terms of what Broadway would accept in its houses. It just blows my mind, the stuff 'Book of Mormon' gets away with. It's way farther across the line than 'Urinetown' ever was.

I know someone might look at a creative person's job and think it's pretty fun. It is. It's the best thing in the world, but it's also extremely challenging to carve out your own completely unique path and not following a default path that someone else has already paved.

Controversy seems to be a by-product of what I do, rather like offence is the by-product of a dog urinating on the pavement. It just happens.

I was real into Devo, Pavement, Captain Beefheart, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

In the beginning, because of the Pavement thing, we were able to sell a certain amount of records. We were able to sell not such a great amount of records, but enough to live on. So there was no incentive to do what didn't come naturally.

Everything we've ever done has been for artistry's sake, and for the greater good and paying homage to those who came before us and paving the way for those who come after us.

My first TV experience, it was so bad. I just didn't feel a creative atmosphere. I felt like we were just pawns to deliver lines. Everyone was telling me that's just television. I said, 'OK, I'm going to stay far away from television!