Sam Shepard Quotes

The reason I wanted to do a webcomic was that I could be my own boss, and I could call the shots myself.

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.'

The joy about the recording is that you are your own boss. You don't have a director telling you how to do it.

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.

The ability to have a choice in what you do is a privilege.

Yeah, they let me do whatever I wanted to.

I just go at my own pace and I like control of the TV and I like to decide when I take a shower and wash the dishes and stuff like that. So I don't know who would want to live with me to be honest!

I own my own time.

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.

When you are in control of what the final product is, there is kind of no limitation to what you feel like you can do because you know that if you don't like it, you can just cut it out.

For the most part, I get to do what I want to do. If I want to play poker, I can. If I don't want to play poker, I don't have to.

You're not a slave to those test audiences.

Mostly, I'm in the very enviable position that no one dictates what I do.

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

Retaining a sense of control is really important. I like to do things in my own time, and in my own style, so an office with targets and bureaucracy just wouldn't work.

You never want me in a position to have to think. That's bad.

The way I define what I do is, basically, I do whatever I want.

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

Nobody has to give me permission to write.

I didn't want to just be an artist and let someone else have all that control over me. I knew I would have to produce.

I definitely prefer to write under my own volition and see what happens.

I just want to do things on my own terms as much as possible.

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.

Within the Universal deal, we've always felt like an independent act. We've never been told what to do. We've used their resources to our own design.