El-P Quotes

Man is driven to create; I know I really love to create things. And while I'm not good at painting, drawing, or music, I can write software.

If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing - it doesn't matter. As long as we're creating, we're cultivating meaning.

The musings are the same I believe the fire to create burns so heavily that I am never far from a guitar or a fountain pen.

I don't understand how people live without creating.

I've always been an all around creative person. Song writing and writing are great ways for me to express myself.

Normal people do not create art.

Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.

I feel so fortunate to get paid to be an actor. I pinch myself. I get it from writing, I get it from baking, gardening... I sort of open myself to the creative flow, which is hard to do, by the way.

Not that painting would have been a release. The reason for doing it is the desire to create. I've got to do it! I've seen that, I can still remember it, I've got to paint it.

If you were to say to me that I couldn't paint, I would write. If I couldn't write, I would be a set designer. As long as I'm creating something, I'm happy.

Art is something you can't teach, but you can inspire it.

In a lot of the art world, you have to present yourself as you know what you're doing at a young age. Music gave me another outlet. The 'no wave' bands were such an inspiration; it felt so free - once you start doing it, it's hard to stop. But I can't get away from art. It comes back around. I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't pursue it.

I'd want to read the stories that I'd written, I'd want to show the drawings that I made. That was just purely natural. So I knew I wanted to go into the arts in some way and that I'd want to show that work in some way.

When you are older, you realise that everything else is just nothing compared to painting and drawing.

From an early age, I knew I would be unhappy if I wasn't doing something creative.

Generally, I move in the direction of art.

A secondhand wardrobe hand clothes doesn't make one an artist. Neither do a hair-trigger temper, melancholic nature, propensity for tears, hating your parents, or HIV. I hate to say it - none of these make one an artist. They can help, but just as being gay doesn't make one witty... the only thing that makes one an artist is making art.

Now my drug is writing or acting, being creative.

There are times when I've inhaled my work. There are artworks still inside of me.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

My capacity for wanting to create has never faltered. If anything, it's gained momentum.

Even when I’m not working, I’m still working on something because I just want to create something.

I started writing because I had a need inside of me to create something that was not there

Almost anything is enough to keep alive someone who wishes nothing for himself but time to write music.

I find it painful when I'm without anything. But I work in multiple fields. If I can't write, I find myself taking photographs. I can go on the road and perform. But the most important thing for me is writing, and when I hit those walls, it's painful.