I have a general feeling that writers and artists who are in this peculiar situation, of being a persecuted artist, all anyone ever asks about is the persecution. It may well be that's the last thing in the world they want to talk about. There were many years in which every journalist in the world wanted to talk to me, but nobody wanted to talk to me about my work. That felt deeply frustrating because I felt there was an attempt to stifle me as an artist. The best revenge I could have was to write.
Original thought, original artistic expression is by its very nature questioning, irreverent, iconoclastic.
The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.
It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind. We need to protect artists and journalists people to allow them to work.
In television, the 60-minute series, 'The Wire' and 'Mad Men' and so on, the writer is the primary creative artist.
The miniatures of the Mughal period are really the pinnacle of Indian artistic achievement. And not a single one of those paintings is done by an individual artist.
I think it's helped me evolve all around, as an artist and as a person. I think we need something, need something to believe in. We need something that makes us pay attention to these humbling experiences.
A lot of artists need structure.
I was voted most artistic in school.
The mystery of the artist is something that the 70's made, but it's not the same these days, and I don't know... to me, I feel like letting your fans know about you is awesome.
What I love most in life happens to be the very thing that I do day-to-day, as my work. What would be my hobby, you know, happens to be my actual job. So I'm very lucky. Even if I didn't want to do as much work as I do, I'd still feel compelled to, because I so longed to be a full-time artist, and since I've been given that opportunity, I'd never want to let down the gift.
Art can only be taught by artists.
There is a subject - there is a research that says a man thinks about sex every 12 seconds. And so when an artist expresses something that's sexual in music it is a reflection of our reality. If we want that reality changed, then we have to do things that affect the core.
I've shared meditation with a lot of hip-hop artists, inmates, and returning war veterans with PTSD, as well. I feel like this dharma, this service is part of my job.
Nowadays, if you're a great artist, you don't have to leave the house, which is a really big difference. You're closer to the artist. And the artist can be closer to their artistry without having to always worry about branding themselves or building something image-wise.
I kind of think that artists throughout history, poets throughout history have been criticized for sharing what's on people's minds and I don't think it's any different now.
Donald Trump's not politically correct. Although you are running for president, you should be politically correct. But there is also the expression of an artist.
[Performing artists] are making greater percentages. People are going to live events more and it's a big success story for everyone - except the music industry itself.
Most artists are making as much money now as they could have made... in the heyday of Def Jam [when the] Beastie Boys would sell 10 million records or DMX would sell 6 or 7 million records. Those records are one thing, but then all the other ways to exploit the emotional relationship between artist and community is so much greater that I would guess that they're making as much or more money than they could have ever made.
People will always blame the poets for society's ills. But these are the true artists.
I think the rap community always tells the truth. And I think that it's important that we listen to their voices so we can have a roadmap, because artists - almost every single artist in hip-hop, they paint a picture of society that's overlooked. The misogyny, the racism, the violence, the homophobia, these are things that we try to avoid instead of dealing with. All of that I see it so often.
I think the artist's job throughout history has been to tell - to say things that people are inspired by.
Democrats are fighting for people to be able to quit work while the rest of us pay for their health care while they go out and be artists and photographers and tend to bipolar kids with asthma or what have you, and we're going to pay for this.
I feel very strongly about the legacy of Ghost and I'm the next part of that chapter and hopefully a very long and continuing story through the franchise of Ghost in the Shell which is already a huge universe. So yes, I felt pressure, but you always feel pressure as an artist creatively in any endeavour you do, so you just have to do the best that you can do and then hope that is successful.
I've never thought it was a good idea to act back-to-back. If you are going to have any chance of replicating life, you need to live it. I also never forgot something Johnny Depp said to me, which Marlon Brando said to him, 'You only have so many faces in your pocket.' I really admire artists who take the time to recharge their batteries and not continually call on it. I think you can spot tired and jaded artists quite quickly.
