Diane Ackerman Quotes

There are so many selves in everybody, and just to explore and exploit one is wrong, dead wrong, for the creative person.

It seems to me that before a man tries to express anything to the world he must recognize in himself an individual, a new one, very distinct from others.

I can't imagine being anything creative in a major town because everybody's doing the same exact thing you're doing. How can you not get confused about what you yourself are doing?

The downside of videos is that it will put my vision in front of other people, so they might not get the chance to create their own.

The businessman says 'If I don't do it first, somebody else will.' The artist says 'If I don't do it first, nobody else will.'

The best advice I've received is to be yourself. The best artists do that.

And I think I have a distinct voice.

Every movie has its uniqueness. You just do your best and go with it.

I'm not the average artist.

But I'm the only one who can paint the moon, because I'm the only one who knows whether that's right or not.

Even if you try to copy a film shot by shot, you still can't. It's still your own film.

There's only so many things to sing about, so what's going to make a song appeal to you more than someone else's is just a unique way of saying the same thing.

We're all unique as actors. To yourself, you are unique. You have to think, 'I'm me. I'm not going to bunch myself with other people.' Agents and producers have to get you into a box to accommodate their limited imaginations.

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.

At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.

I'll never be August Wilson - but what I can be is more of myself.

I don't think people are fans of me because I wrote hit songs. I think they're fans because I'm a lunatic or a weirdo. The hit songs came out of my idiosyncratic personality, not the other way around.

I've always been creative, I think.

I think it is - the biggest plus the performer can have is to be a little unique.

The thing I try to tell people who are just starting in the business is to listen to yourself, trust yourself, and be kind to yourself. And do the work to cultivate who you are and what your point of view is. Don't try to be like anybody else. That's what will make you an interesting artist.

I think all artists have a different story to tell, and no story is the same.

I think my family knows that I'm slightly off the wall with my way of thinking, so I think they're quite used to my weird and wonderful creations.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.

You have to add something of yourself to the portrayal.

I like to tell my own story using my personality and my insight, the way I see things.