Langston Hughes Quotes

It would make me feel that creative art has a chance in this crazy world that we all live in.

It's a pity that if someone who has a really profoundly potent art to share chooses not to or doesn't fit into this very thin slice of what's desirable and marketable, chances are the public will never get a chance to hear what they're doing.

Great artists have no fatherland.

I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.

I know that I'm freer as a hip-hopper than as an executive. Even as a black man, I enjoy more freedom as a hip-hopper than as a black man. That, s controversial to say, but it's the truth.

Never give an artist like me carte blanche: he would think it's simply toilet paper.

In the contemporary world, artists are almost entirely self-referential.

Is there such a thing as black art? Or are there just artists who are black?

I really didn't want to be boxed into becoming a certain kind of film-maker - becoming the Maori story film-maker because I had made those short films.

We have freedom to experiment as an artiste - unlike lead heroes.

Artists, in theory, should not be limited to their personal experience, culture, identity, and worldview. But they must also accept that the degree of difficulty in imagining beyond their own borders is steep, and the failure rate is high.

If one wants to change the way things are, one has to take risks and be part of different kinds of cinema, despite not knowing how it will be received. That's what thrills me.

I would describe Los Angeles as actually not having taste. In New York, there's taste. But you have to remember that taste is censorship. It's a form of restriction.

I feel like I'm a creative, and I want to take advantage of that.

There is nothing that art cannot express.

Our internal artist is always our creative child.

To think about love and passion and political correctness all together, it doesn't work. Art has to go way past the political to be effective.

I think that's what Dylan's trying to do: to create a space artistically where something else can take shape, can take life - where there's hope.

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

The moment we live in is a great time to make art. We have different technologies to play with, and we're left with the opportunity to focus on our work.

For the longest time I didn't realize I was creative - I just thought I was strange.

I write the script; nobody sees it, not the people that put the money in the picture. I cast who I want, and make the film. That's why I've always felt the only thing standing between me and greatness, is me. There's no excuse for me not to be great except that I'm not.

Ireland is a fruitful mother of genius, but a barren nurse.

Kids draw masterpieces - they're the best painters ever. I think the same with music. They could totally write amazing music if they just had the right tools. It's important at that age to set up something, and then maybe afterwards you can go study your violin for 500 hours a week. But at least in the beginning you know about the options.

The reason you might choose to embrace the artist within you now is that this is the path to (cue the ironic music) security.