Rap music came along and saved my life. I started to tell the stories of the streets and that was my way out.
When you're an artist, you have a platform that can reach millions.
I don't talk politics and I don't talk philosophy or anything like that, but if you look at my work, you might get an expression of me as a person.
As a teacher I approach my students purely with the human desire to free them from all scholarly inhibitions, and I tell them, "Painters must speak through paint not through words."
Before you get to 'SNL,' you have your own sensibility. And when you get to 'SNL,' it's the show's sensibility.
I have more to say as a writer than from behind a wok.
I started to perform when I was 12... I don't talk too much. I let the music do the talking.
Playing drums is how I communicate. It's how I speak to people. That's my God-given gift.
Me releasing my music, if anything, is an opportunity to show the world my stories and tell the world my stories.
I wanted a label that reflects the times... a center for artists who want to express themselves. That's what makes Interscope unique. It's about freedom.
I believe that if you're an artist, it's like a gift. If you can do this for a living and you can be involved in it, it's something that you can't ignore. It's the chance for you to have a voice and create something from yourself.
I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.
I think I'm needed - as an artist, as an individual, as an entity, an enigma, an exhibitionist, an entertainer - as an alternative.
Game development combines all this disparate art stuff I'd been doing into one single thing that I could use to say very specific stuff.
I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't really know what it was I wanted to say.
Your best as an artist is to create something that resonates for you.
I've always wished that I had a great ability to verbalize art theory and find a way that I fit in to the whole lineage, but I don't have a clue.
I do not feel any artist can produce great art without putting great personality into it. It is always a piece of you that goes on the screen or the canvass.
I'm always going to be an actor first and foremost, but I certainly want to have a voice in the kind of work that I'm doing.
I've been writing all my life, and playing bass came later on, when I was about 26. What I recognized with poetry and music that I had a different voice - there were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor or even as a director. It was another avenue of expression that my soul needs.
The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.
I want to express my ideas through my music and on stage because I'm a musician.
I was really drawn to spoken-word style poetry. I loved the rhythms, and for some reason, I was just drawn to this poetry as a way of expressing my feelings, because I didn't have any other outlet.
The early Bon Jovi stuff I can't stand. I just think we didn't have our stylistic voice. But some people love some of that stuff.
Like an opera singer, I am able to sing out my song in paint.
