Elizabeth Bowen Quotes

I'll tell you something, and this is true: I've never been able to write a film which I didn't respect. I just can't do it. I'm very happy about all the films I haven't done.

Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity...

At the end of the day, I don't release any records that I'm not proud to put my name on. I never got to that point.

You can't trust an artist that just makes good records.

I've never made a record that I'm ashamed of.

I just want to give the people 100% of myself as an artist.

But i think it would drive me more crazy to just go do a movie that I didn't believe in, you know?

I want to play roles that I'm proud of, that I feel a certain integrity about, and I want to continue to be truthful in the work that I do.

I am not a Ph.D. in economics or a doctorate in literature that I can afford to take my singing lightly. Even if I sing a jingle, I take it as seriously as oxygen.

To be a songwriter-singer means the songs come from deep within, and you treat them as an artist, with that much respect. I couldn't hardly cheat myself.

I just never want to do anything that's going to compromise what I do. It would have to be a song where there would be honest discussion about something.

My conscience won't allow me to do films I thought were bad but were going to make money.

It's really important to me that the music that I release is true to me and important to me.

I have refused money sometimes for a film. I have refused films when I felt that it was not for me. When it was just a job or just about making money, I said no. I wanted to make every film count, and when you are true to yourself, this gives you a certain integrity and a certain reputation.

It doesn't matter even if I am slow or fast as long as my films are honest and carries my integrity.

I wouldn't disrespect myself or my art with any imitations.

I am forever a romantic. I try to bring that into my work. I try not to be fooled by romance. Or work.

My own standards that I'll hold myself to is if the product that I'm making feels honest and it feels like I didn't compromise and it just came from an honest, correct place.

However happy the director is, I have to be okay with it. I'm pretty strict with myself, about throwing things out or trying to be true to whatever the situation dictates.

I won't lay down my principles for any kind of recognition or any kind of position or trying to be more famous. It's just not in me. I'd rather be a man. And then to have all this crazy stuff on my conscience.

What I'm trying to do is be righteous. And when I say “righteous,” I don't mean God. You know? God- Righteous. I mean just when I wake up, I know I was honest to myself.

The writer must be in it; he can't be to one side of it, ever. He has to be endangered by it. His own attitudes have to be tested in it. The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing himself, always.

I've gotten to the point where I realize that I need to tell my truth in music and not walk around blabbing my mind.

I try to pace myself and not work for the sake of working and stick to what inspired me prior to receiving recognition.

I'm just trying to figure out the right balance between making fans feel good and also maintaining some dignity for myself in the process.