Vikram Seth Quotes

I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.

I make music not to make money but because it's in me.

It is not the act of making art that is painful. It is the desire to make something and not acting on it that causes pain....A day when I don't write is less happy. This is not discipline. It is affection, enthusiasm, adventure-any number of other words besides discipline.

If something happened where I couldn't write music anymore, it would kill me. It's not just a job. It's not just a hobby. It's why I get up in the morning.

I just make whatever music I want. It's my obsession, and it's very fulfilling.

I'm sure fame is yet to come; however, it's not my ultimate goal. I really just want to be able to tell stories, and create, and do it for a living.

Painting constantly appeared to me as the one and only possible achievement.

I could never even entertain the notion that it's an option, to not be an artist.

The music itself could never take the place of my own passion in life.

If I don't create, I don't exist.

Everything has always been so organic for me; I have no idea what I would be doing if it wasn't for music. Music forever!

The process of writing and creating and answering that very unique call inside yourself has nothing to do with agents and sales and all that stuff.

It's a gift that we get to do the work that we do to call ourselves artists.

This creating? It's my passion.

Only be an artist if you have no choice!

As an artist, you have to do what you feel passionate about. It has to be something you can connect with.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn't have the need to be on the stage; I didn't feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

It's impossible to just come up with one thing that I could say to the world. That's why I've spent my life in the pursuit of the opportunity to sing to it. Summing it up goes against what fuels me.

I was always an artist. I was a broker to earn a living, but I was always thinking about my art.

There's only one reason for my whole life, and that's art. Nothing else counts; nothing else gives me pleasure; nothing else gives me satisfaction.

The truth is, truly passionate media creators don't get into the media business to make huge gains from spectacular unicorn exits. When it happens, we certainly all cheer (and perhaps secretly hope it happens to us). But the fact is, we make media because we don't know what else to do with ourselves. It's how we're wired, so to speak.

If you were to say to me that I couldn't paint, I would write. If I couldn't write, I would be a set designer. As long as I'm creating something, I'm happy.

I've always been creating my whole life, you know. I've just had a need to create, whether it was sculpting or writing or directing. It's just ever since I was a kid, I don't know.

I'm not looking to be an artist to make money. I'm looking to be an artist.

Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It's the same with me and writing.