Harry Callahan Quotes

I love how people in this business push themselves to know themselves, the world, and their creativity better.

I was 19 when I recorded my first album, and I've been exposed to many things during these last few years; all the baby fat is gone.

When I start to write something, I suppose I want it to change me, to make me into something not myself.

I have been taking every step toward the future every day through making many paintings and sculptures with my deep emotion hidden in my life.

The more I see and know about life, the more ideas I have and the more I want to make art.

For me, making music is a continuous learning experience, and I think that it feeds itself.

I've done a lot of growing up since the age of 16 and I really wanted that to be reflected in my music.

I think it's natural for an artist to explore as they evolve.

I test the limits of myself in order to transform myself, but I also take the energy from the audience and transform it.

Whatever happens in my life, whether I stand up or I fall down, whatever the case, I'm going to use it in my art. Why? Because I'm an artist and I have to.

I view life as a learning experience. It is not so much all about music; it is about what happens when you are doing the music.

It took me 11 years to struggle through one dumb book, and every day you just want to give up. But you don't find out you're an artist because you do something really well.

When I first started making music, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write songs. I didn't have a concept. I didn't think it through. I was just flailing around doing what comes naturally. It took me a really long time to step back and deal with what I was doing with any kind of perspective or self-awareness.

I'm interested in doing everything and anything that I can to squeeze that creativity out of my brain. I guess I'm sort of a performance rat.

I can't play anything until I find something that connects to my life, something I can carry as my secret map or code for the character.

I don't want to be daft and say I had some spiritual awakening or something, but I really did come of age in Los Angeles, where we recorded the album. I had my own little house and my own little circle and I really got to feel how the city ticks.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

As I experience life and go through things, that's what I write about.

I didn't start to be an artist myself until I was 24.

I guess my writing has changed as my life has.

My growth as an artist and a person has been so slow and gradual, it's hard to make a story out of it.

The roles I think about and can't stop thinking about - on the subway, when I'm riding my bike, when I'm running - are the things I connect to.

When you go on tour, you get so pumped up to make more music, learn more about yourself, and grow more musically. It always happens.

I was a magazine illustrator for many years before I became an actor, and I used to think, 'Oh, God, all those wasted years!' But now I think it's just been one big enterprise of illustrating. I used to do it with colored pencils, and now I do it with this voice and this set of limbs.

For me, what's important is to be inspired and keep moving to grow as an artist and as a person.