I suppose for me as an artist it wasn't always just about expressing my work I really wanted more than anything else to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.

The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work but in the excellence of the work he produces.

The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.

I'm excited about there being more of a sisterhood these days. Back in the '90s there was a lot of hate - the women I looked up to as artists were dissing me! It's not so patriarchal these days - there's more love and a lot less hate!

I am a poor student sitting at the feet of giants yearning for their wisdom and begging for lessons that might one day make me a complete artist so that if all goes well I may one day sit beside them.

Some artists shrink from self-awareness fearing that it will destroy their unique gifts and even their desire to create. The truth of the matter is quite opposite.

I've been & am absurdly over-estimated. There are no supermen & I'm quite ordinary & will say so whatever the artistic results. In that point I'm one of the few people who tell the truth about myself.

I've never read a screenplay in advance. You trust the artist.

I have complete artistic control and I just do my best album every time and trust it to fate.

If you're an original thinker you are going get told 'no' a lot and you have to be able to hear 'no' many times from the bankers and trust that at some point someone is going to recognize that you are an artist and not a can of soda.

When there's writing that you really trust it's very freeing as an artist.

People shouldn't trust artists and they shouldn't trust art. Part of the fun of art is that it invites you to interpret it.

To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.

When you're an artist there's always a moment in your life when you think you're not inspired and instead of doing things and instead of travel and instead of falling in love you're just depressed so you don't move so you don't change. So you're not inspired.

There are so many things I want to do. Like I want to get an artist a musician a photographer and a bunch of dancers that I know and just travel across Africa and just film it and just see what happens. Do and learn as much as I possibly can. Luckily I have a lot more time.

Of all possible subjects travel is the most difficult for an artist as it is the easiest for a journalist.

The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.

I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

Gay people are the sweetest kindest most artistic warmest and most thoughtful people in the world. And since the beginning of time all they've ever been is kicked.

I am thankful that geniuses and artists and good people no matter how hard it is will eventually be recognized. I am doubly thankful that also goes for idiots.

You need to know what makes artists tick. Having been through the process myself as a musician since I was an early teen gave me an advantage - understanding them from their point of view because it's about them it's not about you - it's their vision and what they're capable of achieving and you're the conduit.

Computer technology is so built into our lives that it's part of the surround of every artist.