Lindsay Mendez Quotes

I don't much like being directed. I enjoy being allowed to play.

Very few artists are as independent as I am mentally, physically, spiritually and technically. I sit in my home studio and record things by myself. I don't need to get anybody's approval or validation.

Everything in my career is my decision - every picture, every outfit. You get one chance at this, and I never saw myself as being a puppet.

I don't like people telling me what to do, or trying to MAKE me write songs.

I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photography.

I've gone places where they've told me what I need to do, what I need to say, who I need to be, what moves I need to perform. And at Impact I get to just be me. I have creative control to be me and do what I want.

I've avoided situations where I wouldn't have creative freedom.

I want everything that I've worked for to go into my pocket. I want all my money to come to me. I'm very much hands-on with my career, and I like to do what I want in the studio - I don't like being told, 'do it this way' or 'do it that way.'

I feel so lucky and so privileged that I like writing for myself. Like, I don't have to wait for somebody to create a part for me or a project for me. I can just do it. And that's so great.

I didn't come to Hollywood to be subservient to anyone else's vision.

I can't tell you how freeing it is to have my own label. For the first time in my career, I have total control.

You gotta make the movie you want to make.

If I'm going to go out to be a solo artist, it's because I want to do something different without having to wait on someone else's schedule or hobbies or be limited by other people's prejudices. I'd be kind of stupid not to exercise that.

If I only acted, I feel like I wouldn't have enough creative expression over my own sensibility, and also if I only acted, the notion of surrendering my fate and future to other people is deeply unsettling to me and it would make me uncomfortable.

There's a lot of creative freedom. Acting is a whole boatload of fun, but I prefer to do it on my own terms.

I don't tell anyone how to write and no one tells me.

Nobody owns me or my music.

I've never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television, I always did what I wanted to do, and if I couldn't, I didn't do it. It was a freedom that, these days, young directors starting out don't have.

Certainly in cartooning I'm given huge free rein at the moment.

I need to find a way of retaining creative control.

I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.

That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That's the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That's you on the cover. If it sucks, it's your fault.

I do love being solo because I can have more of my own creative input to every aspect of my career.

I have to believe that I know what's best for me. For instance, I choose all my songs. I never record anything I don't want to record. No one tells me what concerts to do.

It has long been apparent that many people in the media don't believe you're competent to make your own decisions.