Christopher Hitchens Quotes

I'm actually living my life with the material I choose to work with.

I'm of the mind that life is a risk, every time you leave your house it's a risk, and I see no reason to go through life with my hands tied behind my back for any reason. I'd be foolish to let something stop me from doing what I love to do.

I've been fortunate that I can be selective enough to do acting when it's really furthering what I want to do with my life.

I like the idea of not having to do stuff for the money, and if I want to, I can pick indie projects for the rest of my life and be quite happy doing that.

I've never done anything for money. My first love is things of limited commercial appeal. I could be happy doing Shakespeare for the rest of my life.

Historically, musicians know what it is like to be outside the norm - walking the high wire without a safety net. Our experience is not so different from those who march to the beat of different drummers.

An artist is maybe not always having a normal life.

I was always involved in art and when I went under contract at Warner Bros. at 18, it afforded me the possibility of never having to stop painting, never having to stop taking photographs and so on, and to actually live a cultural life.

...these poets here, you see, they are not of this world:let them live their strange life; let them be cold and hungry, let them run, love and sing: they are as rich as Jacques Coeur, all these silly children, for they have their souls full of rhymes, rhymes which laugh and cry, which make us laugh or cry: Let them live: God blesses all the merciful: and the world blesses the poets.

We went through an era of big dance records, an era of hip-hop being the biggest thing on the planet. The people who really break through are the people who are not afraid to express themselves in how they feel.

A lot of people like structure, so there's definitely a risk with being an artist that a lot of people aren't really willing to take.

My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.

Poetry is probably the last gift economy. Part of the negotiation is to understand that you're going to do something you really want to do, so you're going to take whatever life comes with that.

I am making art. It's not a job that you've gotta show up to and fill in your slot. This is a dream come true. You get the opportunity to say something, to make a piece of art and hang it on the wall forever. Sometimes you're gonna have to take your time.

Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow - whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don't show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.

I'm going to continue writing. I'll always be a storyteller. But I'm also taking time to enjoy my life.

I could always write songs, act, get into politics, or stay home with the kids. But I've got to have some fun.

Over the years I have learned that creating art has made me happy. I used to be a lawyer and I'm much happier being an artist.

The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.

From where I started to where I'm at right now I'm loaded in retrospect to the opportunities that I have. As far as money and the scheme of the world, I don't cash in. I do films because I'm sensitive and maybe stupid, and that I feel like I'm going to have fun on and feel like I'm going to have a good experience with. It's not about punching in and selling soap.

You ask me why I spend my life writing? Do I find entertainment? Is it worthwhile? Above all, does it pay? If not, then, is there a reason?... I write only because there is a voice within me. That will not be still.

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run

I've been writing my entire life, and I'll always write. But at times I have told myself that I don't necessarily have to publish anything else.

I always want to sing, but I don't always want to be trying to have No. 1 records. I don't think you can do it forever. I don't know what the time span of that is going to be. I want to sing because I want to sing.

There's such a freedom about being an artist... You're not accountable - you're this renegade thing.