creative humility Quotes

You never write a theme for a movie thinking, 'This will live forever.'

I'm not tryin' to come off as the best lyricist.

One thing I've had to realize in my career is that I can't do it all. Sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make sure we're writing the next hit. There are other people out there, and that's what they do every day, and they have strengths that I don't have.

Every time I wrote a sketch that was in my voice, Ferrell would just do it better.

I don't think that I'm over his influence but they probably don't look like Picassos; Picasso himself would probably have thrown up looking at my pictures.

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

I always start a film thinking I know how to do it, then I learn all over again.

Hindsight is the most dangerous thing imaginable for me. I imagine that's the case for most filmmakers. And I would love to be a filmmaker who was an exception to that rule, but I'm certainly not.

High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.

Sometimes if you're a director, you want to believe that you're great and capable at all aspects - the technical side, the lights, everything - but I'm not.

I have no conceit as a writer; in fact, I find it very difficult to start writing about sculpture generally & my aims in particular.

There is no book of mine that I reject. That does not mean that I find them good.

I'm not an intellectual, I'm just a writer.

Some artists get so comfortable now after even one or two albums and think, 'I'm the biggest artist in the world,' but it's like, yeah, you are for now, but you've gotta work so that you're remembered further, and that's what I'm trying to do.

I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird'... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

I really like my first movie a lot, 'Kicking and Screaming.' I think it's a - I'm very pleased and proud of that movie, but it wasn't the - it wasn't 'Citizen Kane' right out of the box, you know? It wasn't 'Sex, Lies and Videotape.'

When one crosses over from an activity, or the verb, of writing or doing, and becomes a noun, like "a writer" I think that is an act of supreme self-consciousness that I've never, in effect, made. I write, but I don't like to think of myself as a writer. I think it's somewhat self-aggrandizing and pretentious. Now, I am a teacher.

Try to take your vision and ego as far away from the song as possible. Give as much respect as you can to the song and the initial inspiration.

I do my best to hold the director's opinion above my own.

When it comes to lyrics, I just write down a lot of things, and only a very tiny fraction of it, I think, is any good.

Being called a new artist doesn't bother me at all.

When you're a writer, you never know which of your pieces are going to gain a toehold and which will not, and it's best not to care too much.

I believe that writing for me is in a way like wisdom; in that as soon as you feel like you've got it figured out you stop growing and maybe even lose something.

The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.

I've always covered some Dylan songs. I do one or two. And I do them because they're great songs. You know some people cover songs they wish they could have written, not me. I like to cover songs I know I could not have ever written.