Artistic Humility Quotes

I try not to look at my old stuff or my new stuff, really. I'm not a fan.

If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you.

To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.

I'm a pointillist, just working my tiny little piece of the canvas. I'm not so good at perspective.

I've never loved composing, because I feel like other people do it better.

I'd much rather go to a Banksy art show than a Moby art show. My art is painfully naive.

It's what I do. I don't deserve any awards for this, it's just music. It's just writing songs. You sit down, you write a song, you record it. You tour and play the songs live, dress them up a bit differently, or dress them down.

There's so many wonderful gospel people out there, and I don't necessarily want to compete with those people.

Me personally, I will always be a fan at the end of the day. No matter how big this gets, I still look up to other artists and people I respect creatively.

I see myself as the literary equivalent of a skilled lathe-operator, or a basket-weaver; a potter, maybe: I make mildly diverting objects that people want to buy.

I think any artist that's going to become anything in this world faces humility: with great humility comes great success.

I don't want my personality to overshadow my talent.

I still consider myself a young actor, I'm 34; I still view it as the beginning of my career. You can get infatuated with acting in a way that makes you less an actor than an acting appreciator.

I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet.

I just want to work on music and make some new stars. I'm not interested in being a star.

I never wanted credit for being a wonderful person or a great human being or looking peculiar. I just wanted credit for the music.

I can't say I've ever finished a film and been particularly thrilled with myself or patted myself on the back. And maybe that's what keeps me going, and that's a good thing. It speaks volumes about how I perceive myself.

I will try not to panic, to keep my standard of living modest and to work steadily, even shyly, in the spirit of those medieval carvers who so fondly sculpted the undersides of choir seats.

I say that whoever claims to have finished a canvas is terribly arrogant.

I never wanted to be anything special. I just wanted to make films.

Just because I make something doesn't mean that it's going to be amazing, and most creative people don't like to admit when their music is just okay.

I am not a jazz singer. I wouldn't place myself on that footing. I wouldn't even enter that arena.

I've never written a song that I thought was a hit.

I love truly forward-thinking music, and I'm not even sure I'd describe my work as that, even.