Jane Yolen Quotes

You can only be yourself, and it sounds cheesy, but when it comes to filmmaking, there's really nowhere to hide.

To make music that means something, you kind of have to drop the cool. You have to be prepared and willing to be uncool.

In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.

If I create with my heart almost all my intentions remain. If it is with the head - almost nothing. An artist must not fear to be himself, to express only himself. If he is absolutely and entirely sincere, what he says and does will be acceptable to others.

No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work's sake, and what men call originality will come unsought.

Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.

I think a show can work anywhere if it's done honestly, with integrity, and with confidence.

Music to me is about being honest, and it's what I've always pictured music as. I don't see the point of expressing yourself if you are going to be cryptic about it.

I want that every piece of art be honest, never mind what it is about.

Stop doing what the record companies are doing and do what's in your heart.

I certainly want people to like my writing, but I know that if I write with the intention of trying to please people, the writing will not be good because it will not be authentic. So, ironically, I have to be willing to write something strange or unlovable in order to write anything truly good.

I think I've learned that if you want to be successful, you have to tell your story honestly and from your heart - and I think a healthy sense of humor doesn't hurt either.

The big cop-out would be to accept popularity rather than opting to try to create potent work. It's so easy to do the popular thing, the expected thing, and that's where you start to cheat yourself - and your fans, in the end - because there's an inherent dishonesty in pandering and dishing up what everyone's expecting.

I know this sounds phony, but I don't start out on a project going, 'I'm going to make an emotional work,' you know what I mean? You try to tell the story directly and honestly and with passion.

Learn your instrument. Be honest. Don't do anything phony. There is so much crap floating around. There is plenty of room for a bit of honest writing.

I feel like every time I walk into the audition room, they can tell if you're faking it and if your heart's really not with it. So I try to keep it as real as possible.

I never write down to my audiences. I respect honest sentiment and honest pratfalls.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

To be honest with my music... for me to expect anyone to connect it has to come from a place of honesty.

If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work.

If you look at the common denominator of all the comics who have had big success, it's being true to their nature... that's what takes a long time to learn.

I always try to find things worth saying, things that are supposed to be said instead of being contrived. I do a ton of writing.

If you write, write about what you do and who you are, and you can't be wrong. Don't lie about anything. You are very similar to everybody else in the world. You love, you hate, you have friends, you have enemies. Be who you are.

You need to write about something that you really know about or you deeply connect with. Don't fake it.

Everything I say, it comes from the heart. It's all real.