When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich.
Maya AngelouA development deal is where they’re giving you recording time and money to record, but not promising that they’ll put an album out.
Taylor SwiftPop music will never be low brow.
Lady GagaIt is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry ‚I could have thought of that‘ is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn’t, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.
Douglas AdamsMusic, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.
Frank ZappaI’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.
David BowieIt is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.
Julius CaesarEvery one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.
Taylor SwiftI think the idea of art kills creativity.
Douglas AdamsWhat inspires me about rap is that it’s written in an almost poetic way. I just think it’s so cool.
Billie EilishIrregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.
Joseph AddisonArtists are losing the choice to use film. People have a love for it – the grain, how it feels, the texture.
Keanu ReevesWhen everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.
Charles BukowskiPound’s crazy. All poets are. They have to be. You don’t put a poet like Pound in the loony bin.
Ernest HemingwayWriting free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
Robert FrostThe ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.
Robert FrostI get a more passionate delivery when I just go in the booth and let the music talk.
Nipsey HussleYour manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
Samuel JohnsonI need drama in my life to keep making music.
EminemU2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.
BonoEating words has never given me indigestion.
Winston ChurchillIt’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.
Charles BukowskiThere’s an ecstatic side to writing. It’s like jazz. It just has a life.
Alice WalkerI think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don’t have a toy, they’ll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time.
Clint EastwoodI seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.
Alice MunroScience fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.
Ray BradburyOne of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.
Brian EnoAs a sportsperson, the best thing is people recognising you and loving you for what you do. For me, glamour is 100 people in the hotel feeling happy to see you.
Virat KohliCardi B put a lot of work in.
Nipsey HussleI spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.
Brene BrownI guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I’m a writer… I write.
David BowieThere’s been a lot of talk about Jack White wanting to work with me, and I’ve always admired him, and of course, he lives in Nashville, too.
Dolly PartonWhen I put out ‚Video Games‘ in May 2011, it was a 5:25-minute love song; I was surprised when a lot of people said they were listening to it. I was surprised when it went to the radio, without me even knowing how something like that even happens!
Lana Del ReyWhy did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.
Tennessee WilliamsBegin noticing and being careful about keeping your imagination free of thoughts that you do not wish to materialize. Instead, initiate a practice of filling your creative thoughts to overflow with ideas and wishes that you fully intend to manifest. Honor your imaginings regardless of others seeing them as crazy or impossible.
Wayne DyerThey who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan PoeI still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.
Dolly PartonBeing a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I’m very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.
David BowieBut innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem.
Steve JobsI’m a painter in sound.
Brian EnoI am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Albert EinsteinI’m in this business to be creative – I’ll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.
Frank OceanA man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.
Ernest HemingwayStories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see where they are going to lead.
Paul AusterAt Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top – I’m afraid that’s not quite right.
Bill GatesYou do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.
Warren BuffettAt Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.
Alice WalkerI have fun with ideas; I play with them.
Ray BradburyThose who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.
Coco ChanelThere is no blue without yellow and without orange.
Vincent Van GoghHaving unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.
David ByrneI knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.
Lana Del ReyI like the sound a typewriter makes.
Paul AusterI did work in a strip club, but I didn’t strip. I danced, and I became very popular.
Maya AngelouThere is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya AngelouI can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.
Bob DylanA lot of the records you buy, there’s nothing you can hold in your hand, it’s all 1’s and 0’s, this digital cloud floating in the ether. but with analog albums, you can hold it in your hand.
Dave GrohlGood thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.
John C. MaxwellYou pick up some fans and a handful of haters along the way.
Bruno MarsI always want to create and do things, or draw.
Billie Eilish