Artist Quotes - Page 324

And when I look back I recognize now that I indeed do come from a large family of artists. Whether they necessarily realize it or not.

For a while I felt like I spoke a different language than my immediate family. It wasn't until my teens that I met and got to know better members of my extended family (my cousin Alma in particular) that self- identified as artists. Something in us clicked together; in the way we thought, in the language we chose to use, in what we enjoyed. She helped me see and appreciate a lot both about myself and my loved ones.

But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old artist's readiness to dissolve characters into a haze. Characters cannot come alive and fight and guide the world unless the novelist wants them to remain characters.

A critic has no right to the narrowness which is the frequent prerogative of the creative artist.

Every artist's strictly illimitable country is himself. An artist who plays that country false has committed suicide; and even a good lawyer cannot kill the dead. But a human being who's true to himself - whoever himself may be - is immortal; and all the atomic bombs of all the antiartists in spacetime will never civilize immortality.

There is only one po- sition for an artist anywhere: and that is, upright.

Anytime you can promote young artists and designers is a cool thing.

My mom is a painter and photographer and my grandfather was an artist, so I've always been surrounded by creative people.

Anytime an artist puts your name in a song, it's unbelievable. It never gets old.

I'm part of an industry that everybody wants to be a part of. I do hang out with a lot of sort of powerful, interesting people like Bella Freud or Jay Joplin or Tracey Emin. I'm part of that group of people. Brit artists who are doing things. That's what I do. Some of them happen to be aristocrats.

I hate working with artists who don't have something to say or when they have something that sounds cool but isn't really them.

If I were related to Monet, I don't know if I would be comfortable becoming an artist because it's too much, the comparison. If I wrote a book and put it out, the comparison to my great-grandfather, the comparison would be hilarious. Every critic, it would be their dream, they'd tear me apart.

I want to go on tour with the most exciting artists, and I want to make sure that I have songs with all of them.

Couple of artists got words for me, that's never fun. They say it's on when they see me, that day don't ever come.

I'm actually 100% independent. I'm not a Universal artist. I'm signed to myself.

Six months is the most you can ask of any fan in this day and age, with the Internet and all these new artists. I understand that my music is in a lot of mediums. Some people want me to make an R&B album. Some people want me to never sing again. I just don't want people to be able to draw comparisons between my old songs and my new ones.

My favorite artists always documented emotion. Marvin Gaye and Al Green and Sade and Aaliyah.

I have a fan base that some people say is equal to that of signed artists' maybe even more.

I want to be remembered as an artist that gave you a piece of me, as opposed to some surface bullshit. I just want to be remembered as a poet that was open and honest because I wake up every morning and I'm me.

Presidents have to be very organized to govern successfully, and solo artists rarely succeed.

There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, "Well, okay, I'm going to do something of high artistic worth." It's funny.

There are so few barriers to working with artists because the contract is brief and straightforward, it allows us to just move instantly.

There's definitely something broken in the music industry clearly. Partly from downloading and partly the obstacles for discovery and listener choice and artist distribution are gone.

I think the rebuilding of the city has to start with the spirit first. So the music, the vibe, the connection spiritually with the artists. Everybody out here is the main key. A lot of people are still in a lot of tough situations. My heart still goes out to the people of New Orleans.

I'm not the kind of artist that wants to get a sound, refine it, and do it 'til I'm 50 so that it's the purest amber of my one way.