Nas Quotes

I never was the battle rapper. That was never my thing. I always felt like it's enough room for everybody to do their thing. I like bringing new energy, re-inventing the wheel, so to speak, every time I come out.

We stand for creativity and pushing boundaries and having fun with one's music.

I tend to just do whatever I want on an album and try to make it work. I'm just adventurous. It's most exciting to be at the edge of your abilities. I want to see how far I can push things.

When I try to write I try to write something different every time. That's the challenge.

I'm proud that with 'Bright Eyes' we've always experimented and tried to make a different record every time out.

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

Every time I write a new book, I want to push myself to try something different.

I think, first of all, you need to love what you're doing, and then this helps in the comedian for its part in everything-but the moment you enjoy what you're doing, you try to express yourself, to find your way, and every time is different, of course.

My style is kind of eclectic and I don't like to do the same thing over and over again. I like to have fun and explore myself so you won't see the same design.

One of the things with the second record, a word I held close to my chest was 'brave.' To take chances to go outside the box and explore. To continue to toss off any expectation that our fans or anyone else might have of us, to just tap into who I am as a writer and artist and really just operate within that freedom of creation.

If you're not allowed to experiment anymore for fear of being considered self-indulgent or pretentious or what have you, then everyone's going to just stick to the rules - there's not going to be any additional ideas.

It's just about pushing yourself to realms that are uncharted. I love to get to that place where I don't know what kind of music I'm doing, I don't know if it's any good, I don't know if it's anything. It's a big question mark. The idea is to have interesting results. That's my bottom line. Not just a creative fantasy world or something like that, but a mood too.

As an actor, I still have to remind myself of daring to let go and not to repeat myself.

If there's room to make a record every year, and it sounds nothing like the old one, I might do that. It's easy to get in and have fun. To me, if it feels right, that's all that needs to be done.

I wanted each of my books to be very different from the others, each to be special and uncategorizable, and I knew I could only do that a few times before I was in danger of repeating myself.

My style is all to myself.

Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.

I mean, I love L.A. - I love living here. But I wish that we could make things without the need to hit a home run every single time. It's a unique thing to Hollywood that if you don't do that every time, then you're considered a failure. But it's like, 'Well, are you making movies to be successful? Or are you making movies to learn something?'

I like surprising myself. I don't want to do the norm, do what I'm always known to do, write how I like to write.

There has to be an element of risk-taking for me in my work.

Our biggest goal is to continue to force ourselves to always start our creative work on a white page and not take advantage of past successes and challenging ourselves.

I try to do things that keep me interested. And play music that moves me. I like to move around and play in a lot of different ways.

When I've worked with established artists, I've naturally been more restricted, but you still have to take risks and push yourself to do something different.

I define myself by everything that I love, everything I can create, everything that I can imagine.

I think as long as you're being creative and finding your own work interesting, that's all that matters.