I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.
The WeekndI never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.
EpicurusMy father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.
Bruno MarsAs much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I’d eventually run out of steam on that, and that would’ve been the end of it.
Clint EastwoodI do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‚real life‘ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.
David BowieTechnique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it.
Oscar WildeMickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.
Walt DisneyEurope is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.
Aldous HuxleyDropkick Murphys get me going, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana… plus, all the regular hip-hop stuff.
Kobe BryantWithout art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
George Bernard ShawDoing graphic novels is cool! It’s fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.
Anthony BourdainOccasionally, I hanker for the time when I sold more records, but I don’t sit and drool about it. When I do look at early footage of Talking Heads, I realise I was just a wreck.
David ByrneI like being able to be on the inside of music, rather than on the outside listening to it.
AuroraBefore I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.
Jim CarreyWe all sort of do want incentives for creative people to still exist at a certain level. You know, maybe rock stars shouldn’t make as much; who knows? But you want as much creativity to take place in the future as took place in the past.
Bill GatesScience does not know its debt to imagination.
Ralph Waldo Emerson‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.
The WeekndI was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole ‚enigmatic artist‘ thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me.
The WeekndAll Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.
David BowieSee that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.
Richard P. FeynmanI’m interested in Jackson Pollock’s kind of art, where art is beautiful, but it’s nothing, and yet it’s incredible.
Taylor SwiftI never played with anything like toys.
Karl LagerfeldAll intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMy music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.
Frank OceanFor art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.
Friedrich NietzscheAnd later, if I ever felt that I was getting swept away by the craziness of being in a band, well, I’d go back to Virginia.
Dave GrohlA musician should only sound like what they do, and no two musicians sound the same. It’s an individual-feel thing, you know?
Dave GrohlMeditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.
Alice WalkerI’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.
J. ColeI love movement. I love moshing.
Billie EilishI’ve always felt music is the only way to give an instantaneous moment the feel of slow motion. To romanticise it and glorify it and give it a soundtrack and a rhythm.
Taylor SwiftMost poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I’ll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master… it’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.
Charles BukowskiInstead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.
Salvador DaliPretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.
Billie EilishI like to be creative.
RihannaI cannot with any real integrity perform songs I’ve done for 25 years. I don’t need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.
David BowieI just really want to get music out and tour and go places I’ve never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.
Billie EilishThe book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It’s the thing that people create.
Jeff BezosThey say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?
Kanye WestMy lyrics are generated by various peculiar processes. Very random and similar to automatic writing.
Brian EnoKanye West is my favorite artist.
DrakeI put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.
Henry David ThoreauThis land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.
Bob DylanMy life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?
Alice WalkerNo, I can’t do rap music!
Dolly PartonThere’s not some idea I’m going to create a work that’s going to change everybody’s consciousness.
Eckhart TollePoetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamA Khaled record is always the best.
DJ KhaledPeople – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.
RihannaMy mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.
Bruno MarsI grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.
Dwayne JohnsonI am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.
Paulo CoelhoPaintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.
Vincent Van GoghI am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company.
Walt DisneyDisneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.
Walt DisneyI liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.
Kanye WestIf an idea isn’t exciting, you shouldn’t do it.
Ray BradburyThere are certain sounds that I’ve found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.
Brian EnoA lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place.
Dave GrohlI have never used Auto-Tune in a live television performance, and I have never used Auto-Tune in any of my concerts. That is a promise.
Taylor Swift