Artistic Decision Quotes

I always had a feeling, for example, that there should be something from Verdi's "Requiem" in the film. You hear it when you see the lava flow in Iceland. That turned out to be a very easy choice.

I'd just sort of gravitated toward the arts, and I had always loved music and really loved theater, even though I didn't want to act. For some reason, being in Kansas, you can either be a graphic artist or a visual artist, so I decided, 'I guess I'm going to be a painter.'

A lot of times, in music especially, it's producers making a political decision.

Besides merely some pleasure that we get out of the combinations of pitches together and lines, I think that there is some satisfaction that we get in the fact of having this diffuse thing organized very concretely and put onto a frame and have it actually decided.

Most of screenplay writing is deciding which voices you want to listen to and take on board.

I don't see how it's a risky thing to take a great part with a great director and a great script. That, to me, is not really a dangerous, risky proposition. It's actually a really good choice.

The reason 'Detox' didn't come out was because I didn't like it.

I never write with an actor in mind - never.

Some films I say no to and they end up working very well, but I don't care, I just want to do something exciting.

I've just simply used what I've used because of the great, great expressive potential of it.

I'll always work with my collaborator in the room so I have a reaction on a note-by-note basis. I know in my gut when something works for me, and I'll fight for it, but I'm a very easy re-writer.

In recording, you're trying to make something work sonically - getting the right inflection on the right guitar sound - and maybe a part that would be musically great doesn't sound as cool. On paper, though, it's all stripped back. The musical idea is the one that wins.

When I wrote 'Paradise,' it was going to be an interlude - like a segue from the song before. Then I just added more to it because everyone loved it.

Because there's so much stuff I don't release.

I always say that when it comes to picking a single, firstly you have to go with what feels right and what your gut tells you.

You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.

Decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create... facts, essays, poems - do you want to speak or to sing?

I got into rap because I can't sing. If I could sing, I'd be a singer.

Well, I wouldn't say that this experience had any influence on my decision to do this film about Andy, because Andy was apolitical. Andy was never political.

As an actress I take roles I find interesting.

'Birdman' is a very risky movie. I knew I wanted to do it just from watching Alejandro's other work. I told a friend, 'I would have done it based on 'Amores Perros' alone.'

I can make a record when I think I have a good one.

Sometimes, I record rough patches of tunes and take them to directors. They choose to retain my voice. Personally, I don't like my voice, and never want to record.

I wrote, in total, about 50 or so songs (finished and unfinished) in the 2 and a half years leading up until this moment, and trying to decide what songs to include on the Mini-Album was super difficult, because there were so many different sound/mood roads I could have gone down. But, after going through everything, these tracks seemed to fit together and communicate a similar sentiment and mood the best.

I didn't intend to make one solo record, much less two. It's really a matter of seeing how it goes.