Artist Challenges Quotes

I get less and less sketching done at shows, as more and more people want to come up and talk or get stuff signed. Most requested character? Probably Catwoman.

Everybody's just been spilling their guts all over records and talking about how hard it is to be an entertainer and how much we get hated on and what we have to go through. But I ain't really got it that bad. I'm just happy to be here.

Everyone gets that second album syndrome.

Serious musicians are finding it harder and harder to have a voice in the world of music these days.

In a sense, the music business and I haven't always been the best of bedfellows. Artists often have to fight their corner. Your music goes through these filters of record labels and media, and you're hoping you'll find someone who'll help you get your work into the world.

When 'Ahora Me Llama' was out, I was looking for someone to do the remix. Among those people I was looking at was Anuel, who was in jail. We tried, but it was impossible to record it because of his situation.

Knowing now what goes into making a successful artist, it's disheartening.

When I think of the trials and tribulations that black men go through in America and that black artists went through, I feel very privileged.

A lot of singers entered the industry with me. A lot of them struggled. Many have not been able to make it but some have sustained.

I think the Internet really sussed things into perspective. Because twelve years ago, I could spend my days on writing and running my band and touring and making posters and practicing with my band and working on my vocals, but I didn't spend a large pie chart of my time sifting through criticism as well, and nowadays I do, and all female artists do, because to be able to promote your work, you need to live in those spaces.

When I first started recording, I was told by all of the experts in the business that the kind of music that I was doing was never going to sell. That disco was the coming thing and it was going to take over and what I was interested in was a minor sideline.

I'm really interested in the record industry and the artists and the problems they're having.

I love music and musicians. And seeing great artists dropped from labels was really frustrating and sad to me.

I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.

Touring and promoting and recording take a lot of time, it's just getting the right balance that's important.

It's hard being a woman in this industry, period. A lot of the time, guys make you feel like you need to hook up with them - especially as an artist - producers and other artists trying to collaborate with them, they make you kinda feel sometimes you need to hook up with them or flirt with them just to make a song.

I kind of need to be ambulatory to write lyrics.

The truth is an artist like me who doesn't get the type of promotion that we see more commercial artists receive, and especially in this climate of the music business, you have to be creative about how you promote yourself.

The difference with a major label and independent is mainly resources. That's the difference that I feel sometimes where I as an artist would have to be more creative and more patient.

With me being an artist that took over a decade to get on, there's so many different things that I have in common with artists that's struggling to get on.

Many artists feel resistance on the way up.

Comics creators are generally screwed in life: Most of us who are fortunate enough to do comics full time - which is very few of us - will literally draw until we die because we have no employment structures intact for retirement, much less insurance!

What happens to a lot of artists in the music industry right now is the following: The music industry is plummeting real fast. So as the industry plummets, what happens is that there is no deals being made.

For women who have children, the economic difficulty of sustaining a life as an artist maybe makes it impossible. There's no maternity leave, there's no pension.

When I made 'A Few Small Repairs' and it did well, I followed that up with having a baby, and that was not received well at my record company. I was written off, and that had a bearing on my career.