Brian McKnight Quotes

I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

The dean of the American Film Institute has written that I'm one of the very few auteurs in America. I've had freedom for 40 years to create art that is totally personal and is what I believe in.

The reason I never wanted to sign with a big label was because I didn't want no one telling me how to make my music.

I don't like working with hitmakers. I don't want hits! You're not even allowed to say that word around me.

I'm not a slave to the recording industry. I have the freedom to make an album that I want to make and do it the way I want.

I'm worried a lot of our work day as artists is a producer's creation - not an artist's creation.

I'd love more production houses to encourage artists to create what they want and not just churn things out.

A lot of my stuff just wasn't saleable. I still don't do private or corporate commissions. It becomes like interior design. I don't enjoy it. The process makes me feel physically sick.

I love writing songs, but I don't want to write the songs everyone else is asking me to write.

I've never conformed to what my record label has said and, yes, that has meant that it's been a long journey for me.

I always say I want creative control. A lot of people don't think about that. And that's what every artist should think of - being creative and not just a puppet.

To be honest, we never, ever let business weigh down the creativity of this band.

My biggest obstacle is trying to keep the music pure to what I want to release. I don't want any corporate suit telling me what story to tell.

Young people have realised that an artist is in charge of what they're doing - this crazy cynicism that artists were puppets has disappeared.

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

We have access to more resources in general, and they are not going to force a situation on us, whether its the producer, or the cover, or what songs we have to play. And it's a small enough company that it seems like the people there care about music and not just about business.

I don't have to worry about what people are thinking and what's going on in the industry. I don't want that stuff to influence what I'm doing. Because I think it stifles you creatively. I don't want to have to care too much about that. All I care about is what the fans think. It's really all I care about, honestly.

I don't want to move over to Beverly Hills. My goal is to make the movies I want to make and support the people I want to support. That's it.

I never pigeonholed myself - the only reason you'd want to pigeonhole is to monetize your business and, as a person, I don't see the importance of doing that. My music took off above the rest of those things: You can just make a song, put it on a CD, and get it out to all these people.

If I don't have to think about the commercial aspect of it, then I feel like I'm going to make better films.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

I think the line is where you're in the studio, you're creating. That belongs to you as an artist. Nothing should taint that. I shouldn't be thinking about what the fans want, I shouldn't be thinking about what the radio wants, what the label wants, what your manager wants, a song for the chicks, a song for the street.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

I work so I don't need to make rent through my songs, and I think if more people engaged with music without needing it to provide for their welfare, you're not beholden to anyone.