Joni Mitchell Quotes

Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick.

I needed an outlet in high school and came across painting. I've actually been painting longer than I've been acting. A movie is a collaborative effort, and with painting you just have yourself.

When things become peculiar, frustrating and strange, I think it's a good time to start painting.

Maybe some people, when they sit down to write their great novel or make their great record or paint their great painting, they have it all planned out in their head. But for me, it's never worked that way.

I realize that 'Postcards' was like input, and 'Ghostwriting' was output. I had all these frustrations and feelings before I did those two projects. 'Postcards' was something that brought new life and creative inspiration into the record, while 'Ghostwriting' was relieving myself.

I paint very quickly. And it just, it almost comes out of me like it's almost my therapy.

I know that when I think of myself as being utterly worn out, when I think that somehow I have nothing more to write, then something is happening within me. And, in due course, it bubbles up; it comes to the surface, and then I do my best to listen. But there's nothing mystical about all this. I suppose all writers do the same.

If a certain activity, such as painting, becomes the habitual mode of expression, it may follow that taking up the painting materials and beginning work with them will act suggestively and so presently evoke a flight into the higher state.

Since I cannot sing, I paint.

It's been so much a part of my life the thinking that I go through is crucial. I found that if I don't paint for around a week, I get practically suicidal. It took a long time to figure out why I had these mood swings, and I finally figured out it's because I haven't painted.

Music doesn't come out of you, it comes through you. You are almost like a messenger.

You can't slot a time and a space and think 'ok now it's time to sit and compose.' It just doesn't work like that for me.

I definitely think that using that artistic side of your brain, just having an outlet for emotion is very important, whether it be painting, dancing, acting, or singing.

All I try to do is put as many colors as I can on the canvas every night.

When I'm stressed or I have some things I have to get off my mind, I go to the canvas and I paint.

I paint, and painting gives me my much needed break from my routine. Painting was a subject in my school, and I developed a liking for the lines and colours and started practising in my free time. It helps me de-stress amidst my hectic shooting schedules.

I came up with a lot of characters when I was growing up that were just creative outlets, and then, at one point, I came across Gus Dapperton in the back of my head when I was making music.

There's something really cool about taking oily coloured paste and pushing it around with these hairy sticks and making something that looks like you. That's the magic of painting.

When you open your mind up, and you go into a creative state, you can't just switch if off. When you have an idea, a creative impulse, and then you ignore it, it can keep you up when you just want to go to your bed - which is why it's great to have voice recorders on your phone!

Writing is an art, just like any other creative exercise - painting a picture, singing a song or dancing. It is an expression of your feelings.

Usually my starting point is something that I've seen. It might be a painting, it might be an object. But they always start from a definite sensory experience.

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.

I'd rather be home alone, painting.

I tend to write first thing, and then do my drawing later. I like to draw at night. But often I go for long stretches without drawing, because I'm trying to figure out what I'm writing.

The paintings usually start as abstracts and then I look at them and look at them, and like a Rorschach test, I try and see what it is.