Steve Carell Quotes

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.

I have long begged off the question of my albums reflecting where I am 'at' personally. There is more inaccuracy in that approach than accuracy.

At the end, we're kind of observers - creative people, I mean. I feel like an observer, and I'm pretty much able to step out of things and see how things are playing out.

Anybody who dedicates himself to exploring the human condition, there's always a detached eye that's watching. In any situation, a little part of me is observing it, to see if there are any raw materials to create something else later.

It is from the womb of art that criticism was born.

The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself.

I think there's always pieces of yourself that bleed into your character. That's inevitable.

Art is that which comes to a man, and stands between himself and an implacable witness: the work.

But I never let a fantasy get away, because I always stop to analyze it.

I've never professed to be an intellectual. I don't try to be.

Poetry is really about your mental state or intellectual, and where you are, and you're trying to evoke that, explain it to yourself, whatever, you're trying to dig into it, analyse yourself.

I'm quite interested in my own mental processes, simply because I'm a failed scientist, and because I'm interested in how the brain and the mind works, and I like to avoid easy descriptions.

I don't look at my work in a critical or analytical way; I just don't think of myself objectively. It doesn't interest me.

I always do my rap from the outside looking in. Like I do my rap as if I'm looking at me rap.

I feel like interviews are the only time I actually analyze my own work.

I couldn't be Susan Sontag. I'm not very good with abstract thought. I always just take to the emotional core of me.

It present to allow me to ask myself questions about what I'm doing. I think that's what visual art does - it either reminds you of something or allows you to question something. I don't know why Robert Motherwell; I love so many different artists.

The truth is, I've denied it for years, but I love deconstructing comedy.

Ego is something that everybody, creative especially, has to grapple with. You need enough ego to keep going but not so much ego that you're deaf or blind, that you're making a mistake and can't fix the course.

I think that's the important thing - being aware of that inspiration and being able to interpret it into something that's meaningful for you.

Formal art is essentially rational.

Writing about craft has forced me to think more about my own writing technique, and to break down my process in ways that have been enormously helpful to me.

And it interferes with your ability to be a good actress if you're constantly aware of yourself as a person. To me, it isn't valuable to think about how I'm coming off all the time if I'm trying to create a character, because that's a process that I love. It's like falling in love and surrendering to another person or a character.

Those questions - when you think about a thought, when you're believing a thought or concept and you question it - you realize that it changes things. Every cell in your body is awake with inquiry.

You think you're developing and getting better and then you see something you did years ago. Looking at your early work.. sometimes it has a depth that surprises you.