Holly Hunter Quotes

I draw the line at letting people into my songwriting cave. To me, that's where the alchemy happens and where the mystery is.

As an experienced artist, I carry my work like a secret pregnancy. I am always aware of inner life and the need to protect it.

I don't fight creativity. I don't fight against not being creative. If I'm not being creative, I'm not forcing it.

I've had shows as a painter, as a photographer, I've done shows as a sculptor. I've done a lot of different things and it all comes from experiences that you have in your life, in your creative environment. They all help - I don't even know if they help; maybe they make it worse but they all influence each other, for sure.

When I got my first loft, I still didn't know what I was going to paint... There were long stretches when I just sat there and thought without interruption.

When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That kind of thinking gets in the way.

In any art, you don't know in advance what you want to say - it's revealed to you as you say it. That's the difference between art and illustration.

But it's like the horror of being in a studio with a blank canvas. I used to always run out of ideas because there are so many possibilities and I would just think, well what am I going to do now!

I always prefer shooting on locations, because when I'm at home, it's harder to sort of get lost in the world of whatever you're making. It does, it does force this bond and community amongst a group.

My influences change all the time; they have to remain current, because they're the things that capture your imagination and make you want to go into the studio.

You can play anyone if you're open enough. It's a form of possession. Each time you work on something, you allow yourself to be possessed by creating the environment for it. Then you allow the possession to happen - but not at the expense of your sanity or of your identity.

You cannot just be working in a vast, air-conditioned loft space and think you are going to make a decent painting. Francis Bacon had a special studio built, and he felt completely emasculated in there. I have to be somewhere comfortable.

I don't look at other people's work because I don't want to be distracted by their ideas.

Rule of art: Cant kills creativity!

I never look at my watch when I'm sketching!

Anytime you put yourself in a creative box, it's going to stifle you; it's not conducive to the writing or recording process.

I like working in any medium. Who's making it? How much do I like the story? Does it contribute something?

I think of myself as a producer. As a producer and as a showrunner, I already understand what it meant to gather people into a room and step back, to create the boundaries of 'everything's okay' to allow TV writers to go to their craziest places.

I believe sometimes we aren't always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we're going on our own journey.

Artists today think of everything they do as a work of art. It is important to forget about what you are doing - then a work of art may happen.

A creative space is an important thing. There are so many studios that feel like doctor's offices in Nashville. I couldn't write there.

When I begin working on a production, I don't really think about my previous album or albums. I try to have a real creative process.

That's what I've always wanted to do - work with my favorite writers and make something from scratch with them that we can feel like didn't exist before we came in the room.

At least for me, any time I've been in hotbeds of creativity, I got excited about something that wasn't coming from me.

I think the greatest privilege you have as an artist is time to nurture what you want to make; that's super luxurious. For you to rush into something, that doesn't feel fun to me. I'm living life in order to be able to write about it.