Riz Ahmed Quotes

I began observing, making paintings of my surroundings, taking a vow of silence, listening, composing music, writing, and making time for formal education. Then I started telling stories.

Many artists use their own lives as a kind of case study to examine what it's like to be human.

Filmmaking is incredible introspective. It forces you to sort of examine yourself in new ways.

My films are always a reflection of where I am in my life.

It's hard to say what you learn acting a part. You find bits and pieces of yourself that are inside the character you play. You locate the relatable aspects of that character to your own life. So, in a way, every part you play forces you to discover things about yourself you might not have learned otherwise.

I've really taken time to dive into my heart and my emotions a little more. I think, before, I was a little nervous to open up that box and go, 'What's in there,' you know? Now, that's what's made the best music, and that's what I've been able to pull out of parts of myself that I never knew existed.

One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.

Maybe it's because it's connected to my childhood, or it's connected to the origins of what drove me creatively, but I feel like my life never makes more sense than when I'm in that process.

Before I wasn't sure what I wanted to say, but now, I have had so many different experiences that they have given me what I want to get across in my music.

It's such a private thing - 'my process' - I can just say that the work that I do is like therapy between me and the character.

The more I do in my life, the more I can write music about new experiences.

I'm interested in trying to explore what I think is the truth at a given time in my life, and part of the process of being honest is - in my mind - talking about the idea that you're watching a movie. You're sitting here watching a movie. And I like that. It appeals to me intellectually, and also in a way I can't even explain.

It's really such a personal journey, making a record, but even more so writing the songs.

I believe acting to be my own journey through connection more than anything else, but that's only my take on it.

I think of my poems as personal and public at the same time. You could say they serve as psychological overlays. One fits on top of the other, and hopefully there's an ongoing evolution of clarity.

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.

Yes, all my songs come from personal experience and relationships.

The feeling of being at sea has put me in touch with who I am to a greater degree than if I had been on land all these years. So, in a roundabout way, I imagine it does inform my acting.

I can look back over my earlier music, and it takes me back to the place I was emotionally.

Painting what I experience, translating what I feel, is like a great liberation. But it is also work, self-examination, consciousness, criticism, struggle.

The story of 'Lasers' is my story. I didn't have to look too far to get subject matter for this record; it was stuff that was happening to me.

My work is intensely personal.

I was inspired to create 'My Life' so I could finally share a personal part of my life beyond my music.

I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and realising who I am. It's a natural process.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.