Quotes About Creativity

Writers tend to feel like outsiders.

I feel like theater in high school seems to be sort of like the safe haven for the outsiders and people who don't necessarily fit in. And it was a come-as-you-are sort of class, and it's a come-as-you-are after-school activity.

To me, it's the outstanding people, people like Jack Kirby that really make a difference, that are very, very important.

If there's a criticism of 'Cassadaga' that I agreed with, it's that we left things in the oven too long, that songs were overstuffed, with too many ideas competing for space.

I believe in creative control. No matter what anyone makes, they should have control over it.

The whole joy of writing comes from the opportunity to go over it and make it good, one way or another.

I've never listened to an album once I've finished it. All I hear is what I should've done different. I beat myself up over it.

Doing the same character over and over, it gets boring.

I remember making my own dog food and feeling very fulfilled by it, then by day four I was over it.

I don't write lyrics. I hear the track and sing in gibberish over it, then I try and fit words into the phrasing and melody that I already have set. Everything is left to chance.

I look at the plotline and let my co-author basically write the book; first draft. Then they give it to me, and I totally destroy it and write all my stuff over it.

I write in my house, at my desk, where I have Christmas lights strung over it to try and convince me that I'm having a good time. I can't really write anywhere else.

I don't think writers should have writer's block. I think they should write. Imagine you were a bus driver and you said, 'I've got bus driver's block.' Get over it.

I think I'm much more of a guitar-songwriter than a singer. I start with chords and then test out melodies rather than improvising over it.

I'll go in the studio and hear a track that I don't like, and they're trying to pay me to rap over it. But I'll tell them I just can't do it. And when they ask why, I say, 'Because then somebody's gonna hear it... damn, find another track.'

You can tell a more over-the-top incredible story if you use a nonfiction form.

We have more than enough deodorised, over-the-top, sentimental cinema. Let's try to bring a little human intelligence into things. It can be very rewarding.

I've always toyed around with creating over-the-top lady characters in my head.

It just seems like the whole, overall animation world is trying to go where maybe animation doesn't belong.

Writing, overall, has never been what I'd call fun. It's fulfilling. It doesn't come real easy for me.

No matter how much I plan the overall arc of the character, you get there day one on the film and you shooting certain scenes first, and it goes completely different to anything you ever thought of, and then it's done.

Someone who directs a film, they have to see the overall picture, and they have to get the best performances out of the actors.

I say yes to everything if I like the overall thing that's being put out there. I'll do anything with David Wain.

Overall, I just love performing so much that when I write, I want to write for me. I kind of learned that on 'Mr. Show,' that even in an environment where you can write whatever you want - which is what that environment was - I realized, 'Man, I still want to be the guy out in front.'