Artist Quotes - Page 210

My parents were New Yorkers, and I was conceived in Los Angeles. My father was a makeup artist to Clint Eastwood and Richard Chamberlain.

When a young artist asks me a question, I want to do what I can to give them an answer if I have it within me. I know what I know. I won't make up stuff. But if it's something I've been through, I'll share my experiences and tell them the truth.

I grew up listening to Tupac, Biggie and other hip hop artists in the 90s. To this day, their music is still some of my favorite.

A lot of artists talk about getting out of their comfort zones and being the most proud of their newest album. But it is true for me. I rethought a lot of what I do.

As an artist when you come into [hip hop] you don't know nothing really. You just know what you do and it's free of the influences of money, power and all these other things people learn about the further they get into it.

In country music, there are certain female artists, like Gretchen Wilson, where you're going to find lesbians because they're responding to that more aggressive side.

With the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth... the critic

If you watch the award shows, you'll see variations of the hammer pants. It's always cool to see that and then every now and then, you'll see an artist who's pushing the envelope and it may not be all the way there but you can see where it's coming from. I'm always appreciative of seeing my influence.

Herman Melville said that artists have to take a dive and either you hit your head on a rock and you split your skull and you die … or that blow to the head is so inspiring that you come back and do the best work that you ever did. BUT you have to take the dive and you do not know what the results will be.

As an aspiring artist, you should strive for originality of vision. Have something to say and a fresh way of saying it. No story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it’s not the work of the imagination.

I've often been given the career advice to not wear too many hats, which, of course, has just encouraged me to wear other hats, such as being a writer, being a curator, or just doing anything outside of the definition of an artist.

There are great disciplines from being a sportsman that you can transfer into being an artist. The preparation, the sacrifice, the constant desire to improve.

If I've grown as an artist, it will be represented in the art. There's no need to explain it.

As an artist, you just want to keep creating, keep finding a place that really inspires you that feels fresh and new and keep it exciting.

Artists never make wars. They are too busy making life out of the matter of their visions.

Michael Jackson was extraordinary. When we worked together on 'Bad,' I was in awe of his absolute mastery of movement on the one hand, and of the music on the other. Every step he took was absolutely precise and fluid at the same time. It was like watching quicksilver in motion. He was wonderful to work with, an absolute professional at all times, and it really goes without saying... a true artist. It will be a while before I can get used to the idea that he's no longer with us.

Standing in the nordic nook of the kitchen, I can gaze down at the flimsy-limbed joggers heading south towards the Park. It's nearly as bad as New York. Some of these gasping fatsos, these too-little-too-late artists, they look as though they're running up rising ground, climbing ground. My generation, we started all this. Before, everyone was presumably content to feel like death the whole time. Now they want to feel terrific for ever.

He was an artist when he saw society: it never crossed his mind that society had to be like this; had any right, had any business being like this. A car in the street. Why? Why cars? This is what an artist has to be: harassed to the point of insanity or stupefaction by first principles.

The criminal, like the artist, is a social explorer.

I would like to be known as an artist. Whether that be music, acting, sketching, cooking, whatever. Im interested in all of those things.

Artists have always been the front line; that's part of our responsibility. But a lot of the big actors come out, they get slammed, and then they retreat.

The idea of selling is a projection that people create about people that is more of a reflection of who they are than what is actually happening in front of them with the artist.

There's a myth among amateurs, optimists and fools that beyond a certain level of achievement, famous artists retire to some kind of Elysium where criticism no longer wounds and work materializes without their effort.

I firmly believe artists should be paid for what they create.

I'm always asking friends what new music they're into, and I love showing people new talented artists.