Quotes About Creativity

The drums were new to me; I was just playing what was in my head. I was a guitar player originally - so on the drums, I just played what was in my head rather than caring too much about what others were playing. And in that way, I came up with a simple but unique style.

I had originally been looking at writing, including fiction.

I've always liked the Muppets. I watched 'The Muppet Show' in England every week as a child. The show was originally broadcast in England.

And for me I think I was originally a theater person, a producer/director/actor.

A song like 'Loyal To Me,' for example, I originally wrote that for a girl band in mind, that's why it has so many harmonies and it's got that sort of '90s/R&B feel to it.

My early life had a lot to do with my origins as a writer, but I didn't get into doing any writing at all until I was about 35 years old.

I think I would have been a totally different kind of writer if I'd gone to England. I might have developed a cynicism about my origins, a belittling of them, or an excessive nostalgia for them.

It just so happened that the sound I've developed has the Memphis origins to it that made Drake wanted to work with it.

A novel means a new way of doing a story. If you go back the origins of a novel, 'Clarissa' - that's not a novel; it's just a bunch of letters. But it isn't! Because it's organised in a particular way! A novel is what you make of it.

What I'm trying to do is to make films - 'I Origins' is one of them - with the new generation of filmmakers. I want to support that.

I just want to spearhead and lead a new style of New Orleans music.

I always have a little bit of Brazil and New Orleans in my band.

New Orleans is like my blood; it's not going anywhere. And then I just take different things that I've learned over the years and add them to what I'm doing with the natural New Orleans sound.

Everyone is unique to the way that they dance in New Orleans.

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?

We're huge fans of 'Game of Thrones' for example, 'Orphan Black.' And even though those shows don't necessarily correlate directly with 'Arrow,' I'm a very big believer that writers are the product of their inspirations.

I write sets of books, but I've also written a lot of orphans.

Imagine a world without art: it's George Orwell's nightmare!

George Orwell is half journalist, half fiction writer. I'm 100 percent fiction writer... I don't want to write messages. I want to write good stories. I think of myself as a political person, but I don't state my political messages to anybody.

I've always been fascinated by Oscar Wilde.

'Oscar Wao' for example cohered in a period of terrible distress. All the novels that I wanted to write were not happening.

I love Oscar Wilde, still the wittiest writer of anyone, dead or living.

When my friends were listening to hip-hop or R&B, I was in the crib listening to Billy Joel and Michael Bolton, Luther Vandross, and Oscar Peterson.

Jazz doesn't have much to do with how I write songs, but I am a big fan. My favorites are Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, and Mose Allison.