Rhiannon Giddens Quotes

I've never been in this business to make money. I've always been in it to make good music.

I was never in this for the money. It's all about the passion for the music.

If I didn't love it, I would not record it.

If someone else made 'Up in the Air' or 'Thank You For Smoking' or 'Juno,' I would have wanted to rip their head off. I need that same sort of passion for every project I take on.

Before the money or anything, number one, it was just to put out real music, real stuff with a passion, real art.

I'm not oriented by money, to be honest. Everybody thinks we're in the music business for money all of the time. But that's not true for me.

I'm just excited that I get to put out the music I love versus music just for the sake of it.

I don't have this feeling like, 'Oh, I want to live in the United States and make movies and become famous just because the money is here.' I like to make movies that tell stories that I care about.

I would rather fall flat on my face than try to just make a quick dollar by making music that fits into the radio format right now. It does nothing for me.

For me it's about the music, and it always has been. Maybe for some other people it's more about money.

If it turns out to be a hit, well, good luck dealing with fame. And if it's not a hit and you can still survive and make music you believe in, well, then you're truly blessed. I think that's where we are now.

In other words, the celebrity gets out of hand, and if you're not careful, you will forget what you are about - and that is you are about making music that people want to hear.

Passion is the thing that sustains you in acting. If you're doing it for fame and money, don't even bother because it will never happen. The last thing I ever expected was to be paid for this.

I started feeling it was wrong to withhold my music for money - as strange as that might sound!

I'm just following my own art, and I just think that the only thing I can do to be a great artist is do the best job I can in whatever movie I do.

I don't think you need a record deal to write songs. You don't need any other reason than you want to do it. It's a far cry from why some people do music today. They make it to order, which is pretty horrible.

I know there are some labels that put out music for art's sake, but I don't know which ones.

The fame and the money and all that stuff that comes along with it is all great, but that's not the sole purpose of why I make music.

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

I don't do this for the money, I don't do it for record sales, I don't really care about that, I just want to make beats.

I've never really aspired to the spotlight; I just wanted to do music, which is kind of weird because music comes with that spotlight.

I always say to my agents, you go through one of these big kind of movies, everyone makes money, but like, I said, 'I'm the one who's gotta go make it, and if I don't have my heart in it, and it's like a love affair, I'm not going to do a good job. Then, and I don't want to just get paid. I just, I don't want to do that.'

There is a big difference between No. 1 and No. 2. I don't care who wrote it. I'd love to one day have a No. 1 that I wrote, but if that ain't in the cards, whatever. My job is right now is to make the best music I can and try to get it to the people, whether it be something that I wrote or not. It's my job to be the best I can for the fans.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

People in independent film have a passion; they're not in it for the money.