Artist Quotes

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you're making a mistake but let you go on with it, that's when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

Every true artist is at war with the world.

I feel close to Marvin Gaye, Vincent van Gogh, because nobody appreciated his work until he was dead. Now it's worth millions.

If we really are saying that rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you are saying, it don't matter that you didn't make them die. It just matters that you didn't save them.

Look, people are allowed their own opinions and they don't always coincide with yours. As an artist you just have to keep plugging on.

There comes a time as an artist, can't follow the crowd. You have to do YOU, and make the crowd follow you.

Songs should follow the state of mind of the actor on screen. It can be grammatically perfect, you know, with all those embellishments that the ustads are good at, only if you're singing for a film on, say, the life of Tansen.

I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don't really think that hard.

I think it's shameful when you sell out. It depends what kind of artist you wanna be, but I don't want my name anywhere near another brand.

People ask me who is my favorite country artist. I say, you mean besides George Jones.

I'm kind of hooked to the game of art and literature; my heroes are artists and writers.

I know I'm not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn't interest me, I'm interested in being provocative and pushing people's buttons.

I don't think that there's much that sets me apart from other musicians, but I think there are definitely things that set me apart from other kinds of artists.

You can be the most artistically perfect performer in the world, but an audience is like a broad - if you're indifferent, Endsville.

Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show.

I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. I'm a trapeze artist.

You don't necessarily have to write to be a poet. Some people work in gas stations and they're poets. I don't call myself a poet because I don't like the word. I'm a trapeze artist.

I think of myself as a song-and-dance man.

I paint mostly from real life. It has to start with that. Real people, real street scenes, behind the curtain scenes, live models, paintings, photographs, staged setups, architecture, grids, graphic design. Whatever it takes to make it work.