Raine Maida Quotes

I don't tend to write when I'm happy, which I think is pretty obvious.

There's this whole idea that you've got the blues and you're going to write. Bullshit. When I feel really bad, all I want to do is sit in front of the TV with the remote control and check out.

I usually write when I'm in a great place. When I'm depressed, I don't usually write. So I take all of when I'm depressed and throw it into when I'm feeling good. Weird, I guess.

I used to be on the kitchen floor, crying, wasted and thinking of lyrics. That was the only way I could create - as a tortured artist. I've learned that you can be stable and taking care of yourself and still create beautiful work.

I only ever really take out my guitar when I'm miserable, which isn't necessarily a very good time to do it.

I write really scathing, angry stuff when I'm in a better mood, and then uplifting and happy stuff when I'm at the absolute bottom.

If you're unhappy, you can't make anything.

Writers often write their best when they are feeling their worst

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.

I think depression creates in me an urgent need to write, but I also believe that daily stress, and even the positive 'stress' of intense happiness, can compel me to express myself through the written word.

I go through major crises every few months, but then I have great peaks of belief and creativity. I'm a weird kind of animal.

You don't necessarily have to be in misery to be talented.

I think you can really gauge my state of mind by listening to my albums.

I could write six songs in one day with everything that's going on.

Happiness is such a good state, it doesn't need to be creative. You're not creative from happiness, you're just happy. You're creative when you're miserable and depressed. You find the key to transform things. Happiness does not need to transform.

If I ever stopped being angry, I couldn't write anymore. How could I?

A lot of artists think they want anger. But a real, strong, bitter anger occupies the mind, leaving no room for creativity.

You know what? I'm not always in a positive, happy place. But I'm able to concentrate enough to come up with a really good song.

I wasn't creative when I was depressed. When my depression got treated, I was creative again.

No matter how happy or hopeful I am, I always tend to drift back to that. It's underneath all the music I've ever written... An artist is trying to tell you how he's feeling. And if that accidentally becomes entertaining, it becomes a career.

Whatever I'm feeling, whatever I'm going through, whatever mood I'm in... If I'm feeling like dancing or clubbing, then it will be reflected in the music. If I'm feeling dark and vulnerable, then it will reflect in the music, too.

If I'm happy and joyous, which I have been a lot in my life, thankfully, I'm usually not at the piano writing about it.

I'm just a perpetually confused and terrified person that is trying to be less so all the time, and music is the byproduct of that.

It's not necessarily bad that you have angst or you have anger - it's what you do with it, how you interpret it into something profoundly moving.

A lot of my music is inspired by personal situations in my life.