Ezra Furman Quotes

I held in being sexually attracted to women for so long that once I got that out of me, the music became easy.

I write for myself; I release the albums to connect with everyone else.

Comedians don't have a monopoly on suffering. But creative people are sometimes fortunate enough to be able to incorporate their most traumatic experiences into their art.

The artist writes, paints, sings or dances the burden of some idea or feeling off his mind.

The greatness of being an artist is the kind of ridiculous guffaw you can have at one's own misery. 'That was miserable! Now how can I write about it?'

For me, music is therapeutic, so the songs that came to me the easiest came from the most devastating moments of my life.

Artists need some kind of stimulating experience a lot of times, which crystallizes when you sing about it or paint it or sculpt it. You literally mold the experience the way you want. It's therapy.

I do these records. All of these ideas that I have, that I put out there, that inspire me to write, are a purging in a lot of ways. I have to expel them in order for myself to walk around and actually smile and be a regular, or a living, person.

Art is like a fart for the soul. Better out than in.

Poetry is like pooping. If there is a poem inside of you, it has to come out. Sometimes it can be really difficult and take longer than you'd like (it may even be painful), but other times it can be really easy and happen much faster than you expected. But either way - it is important, and it feels so much better when it's done.

Out of my own great woe I make my little songs.

I like the fact that I can go away and lose myself so I don't have to live in the world of courage that everyone else does. I like creating, it's what I do, and acting allows me to stretch all those different muscles in all kinds of ways. That's pretty cool.

Creativity is what helps me escape a lot of my inner demons.

'Nation' was one that I'd have killed myself if I hadn't written it. It was absolutely important to me that I wrote it. It was good for my soul.

I tend to write it and then let go emotionally.

The thing running through me is the same thing that writes songs. It's the fighter about to get into the ring. It's like, I'm not here to entertain you; I'm here to get this out, whatever it is.

When I have worries, fears or a love affair, I have the luck of being able to transform it into a poem.

I think a lot of my work has been a weird attempt to liberate myself, but it's not altogether successful.

I get very frustrated by this term 'genre exercise.' I mean, what exactly is that? Genre is not really relevant when you are writing a song; hopefully you are doing it to explore something, to create something, and I don't agree that any of my albums are genre exercises.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

Growing up in England, people told you why you couldn't do things. Suddenly, I had a publisher banging on my door, and was given the creative green light to simply make.

Writing songs was like my ticket to the world, I think.

Making art has never been a mystery to me. It's never been something that's very difficult.

I don't want to be held down by genres so much.

Lyrically, I personally lean towards venting.