Rashid Johnson Quotes

In each of my characters there is a little of me. Not strictly autobiographical but a little piece of my soul.

All my songs are where I am.

The most delightful aspect about the language of cinema is that it speaks to each of us in different ways - it is a purely subjective experience.

I don't really approach a character as to whether or not it's good or bad. I just approach a character as to where it lives in me.

I feel I'm all over my movies. I know my movies are all over me.

When I go to an art gallery and stand in front of a painting, I don't want someone telling me what I should be seeing or thinking; I want to feel whatever I feel, see whatever I see, and figure out what I figure out.

A great poem leaves so much room for everybody to have such a different reaction to it.

A writer needs a life of introspection.

Well, I think in my own work the subject matter usually deals with characters I know, aspects of myself, friends of mine - that sort of thing.

Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.

All of my films have been autobiographical - it's all I've got to go on.

I've always drawn on bits and pieces of my own life.

All my characters are me, in one way or another.

With every role that I do, I always see a little bit of me, a little bit of art and life.

Music is the most private place in my life, but it's become the most public part of who I am.

You finish a film not in the editing, but in the conversations that audiences have with themselves - and in that sense, every viewer is making a slightly different film. And that's wonderful.

Ultimately, I don't think you can be a character who's completely alien or divorced from your own personality. It's probably true of every writer - it's probably true of every filmmaker, every songwriter - that, ultimately, every character you create is a facet of yourself.

I would say that 'After the Storm' is much more informed by my personal life than my other movies.

I decided with 'Savage Season' to use a lot of things in my life as the basis.

Things just kind of stick with me, and writing, for me, is always an investigation into my own feelings about them. I wonder why things stick to me, and I try to synthesize those into a dramatic experience in some ways.

Real-life experiences will probably end up in my music.

Your music essentially reflects everything you do, everything you've been through, in the deepest part of you.

When you write, what's going on in your life shines through in the songs.

I don't deal in technique. I deal in emotions.

It's always been most important for me to figure out "my space" rather than trying to check out what everyone else is up to, minute by minute. Technology is making it easier to connect to other people, but maybe harder to keep connected to yourself-- and that's essential for any artist, I think.