Nam June Paik Quotes

If you start to just aim for what the audience wants to hear, you're already hamstrung because you don't have any freedom.

Art has nothing to do with politics. It is the freest thing in the world.

I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.

The artist is not responsible to any one. His social role is asocial... his only responsibility consists in an attitude to the work he does.

I want to be a genuine artist who has a say in what I do.

I make music, and if anyone wants to dislike it because of my logo, or lack thereof, then fine by me.

Young people have realised that an artist is in charge of what they're doing - this crazy cynicism that artists were puppets has disappeared.

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

Wasn't the whole point of being an artist, or at least part of it, that you didn't have to wear a tie?

Hopefully this is going to be a trend, the beginning of a movement to reclaim theater for the artist and not commerce. I think there's a level of fatigue. Artists are tired of having to create work that's then coopted by commercial demands. When you begin souping up the car, the car no longer feels like your own.

All any artist can do is please themselves.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

My job is to just express something that I want to express. And if I'm ahead or behind the curve, that's for others to decide.

The dean of the American Film Institute has written that I'm one of the very few auteurs in America. I've had freedom for 40 years to create art that is totally personal and is what I believe in.

Art must not serve might.

The freedom of every artist is essential.

Most artists like to think of themselves as rugged individualists, as independent characters.

I'm not an artist who has an agenda that's set by the work.

Working on art, as opposed to being in a constant collaborative state, as in a band, is something that I've always done - to a smaller degree, but it always remained a part of my integral self.

It's not in the interest of the artist to think of his market.

My goal was, and still is, to write first, direct my own stuff whenever possible and control my own creative destiny.

When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another.

I never want to be in a position where I have to defend my material. It's too subjective. It's for other people to defend or not defend.

I need someone who understands an artist's mentality. I couldn't be with someone who wouldn't let me have my freedom.

When I was younger, all I cared about was what people thought of me and my films. Now I care less about catering, hand-serving, hand-feeding the audience. I've gotten to the point now in my life where I'm serving myself.