Lukas Foss Quotes

When I take from my influences, it's rare that I do it literally.

I get to study and I got to mimic and what I basically did was I stole from every person that I could steal from. I was an imitator. That's what I was. It was years before I could take all of these things that I loved about all of these different artists and put them together and find my voice.

If you look at any creative person's work, you can see bits and pieces of their influences. That's what an artist does.

I think plays deserve other interpretations. They should live on, and other people should should take their hand at them. I'm very supportive of that.

There's nothing new, even 'new' is inspired by something. We're all, either consciously or unconsciously, we're inspired.

I'm not interested in replicating 'Hedwig' like a virus.

I'm glad Wu-Tang was able to inspire other producers and artists, but I would never want to be erased or removed.

The beauty of ideas is that they are like waves in the ocean and they connect with things that came before them, and I think it is very important to embrace things that interest you and influence you, and incorporate them into what you do, as all artists have always done. The ones that say they don’t, are lying. Or are afraid that their work won’t be seen as being original, somehow.

I listen to a lot of music. But I definitely haven't looked at an artist and like thought I want to have a song like this.

During the writing process, I tend not to listen to too much music. I obviously wear a lot of influences on my sleeve, but if I was listening to too many records, I would turn into too much of a monkey.

I'm not an Expressionist. I love to look at de Kooning, but I've got this kind of secret life, and that is something that pleases me. I have to try and make something out of it.

I think with anything where you delve into the back story of an artist, it kind of explains their work more intimately.

What I've learned is that it's okay to take from heroes, such as Debussy, but it has to be filtered through my own personality so that ultimately it's me.

The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art.

My best efforts were some modern things that looked like very lousy Matisses. Thank God I had the sense to realize they were lousy, and leave Paris.

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

I don't think I really invented anybody. I have drawn on real life.

In anything I've ever written, all the characters sound like me, which I don't think is a bad thing. It makes sense. But I had always admired filmmakers who made movies that didn't sound like them at all.

Their films would probably be better if they'd seen a few more films, which runs counter to this idiotic theory that you run the risk of being influenced if you see too much.

I think it's always challenging to look at a script and make it your own while maintaining the sense of what the style of the show is.

I do tend to take lines from other lines I like, and then write around them.

Stanley Kubrick was a big inspiration. People accuse me of never using my own material. But when did Kubrick? You look at his films and they are completely unique... completely separate entities.

The audience may not have felt it was right, and the author may have felt a little upset, but every part I've played I've twisted around in my mind until I've made it into something of my own. Looking back over it, I didn't deliberately sit down and plan like that, but it does read like it.

Oh see, first off you gotta realize - everything for me is a reconstruction or deconstruction. I would actually say deconstruction. Mission: Impossible would be the exception. That would be a reconstruction- deconstruction.

It's fun to see how other artists adapt my work.