Akon Quotes

I remember on my very first film, which Steven Soderberg executive-produced, he said, 'Try not to repeat yourself. Do things that scare you.' Even if it's a challenge, I want people to say that this guy tried this thing. Hopefully he learned from it.

My direction as a person working in film has been to never get comfortable with anything I was doing. At the time that I decided to do action films, people were telling me, "Well, you can't do it. You're not that type. It's not going to work." And so obviously that made me think, "Well, that's not comfortable. Maybe I should try it. What can I do with it?" So I did that, and I'm glad I did it. I'll probably do it again, and I did other kinds of things that seemed like challenges for me, because I like being on the high wire.

Every movie that I do, I always try and better myself in the next one and try and find a part which is more challenging. It's a little vulnerable to do that, to always push the envelope. You position yourself for a lot more flack or a lot more critique because you're trying to do something different. Sometimes you're good at it and sometimes you're not, but it's a chance you have to take to make life exciting.

The fun for me is to mix it all up. I would actually like to do something as far away from what I've just done, just for my own personal joy and growth, for what I want to do.

I just want to do something challenging.

I want to challenge myself, challenge my styles.

If you're playing within your capability, what's the point? If you're not pushing your own technique to its own limits with the risk that it might just crumble at any moment, then you're not really doing your job.

'Bloodshot,' for me, was unlike anything I'd ever done before, which was really the draw of it. In addition to trying to reconnect with my earlier work, I also wanted to try to do something that was completely new and different.

I look for something that can challenge me or makes me ever so slightly afraid - fearful of how I am going to approach it - then I'll go for it. If the project appears linear or predictable, then I'll usually give it a miss. Anything that involves me being stretched as an actor, I go for.

I do tend to apply myself to projects that make me uncomfortable because usually when that happens I try to find a way of existing in the project that is more creative.

I really do believe that if you don't challenge yourself and risk failing, that it's not interesting.

When I started, my teachers told me that I had to sing 'Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.' I said, 'No, I want to sing all the other stuff.' If you do not push yourself, you will stay the same. Maybe some singers are happy with that, but I have to move, I have to do something new always.

As an artist, you never want to write the same song again, you always want to challenge yourself to writing in a different way.

As an actor, or as a person, I like to do things that are challenging.

Sometimes I feel an obligation to be accessible as a personality, but for me the driving force since the beginning has always been good work, taking risks, trying new things. If the door opens, go through it. Always go forwards.

I'm always trying to do stuff I haven't done before or challenge myself so I'm not resting on my laurels all of the time because if I just found my little niche and never left it, I'd be pretty boring, I think.

I always want to keep challenging myself to do something that I don't even have the foresight to know what it's going to be.

One thing that I'm continually reminded of is just to always find something that will challenge you in a new way, a very new way, and that's not the easiest of roads, but it's the most exciting.

I like the possibility of failure. I don't want to be in a comfortable zone.

I like to tread uncharted territory and push myself in terms of performance.

In this business, it's important to constantly do things that you don't know how to do. I love touring and making records, but I've learned how to do that, so sometimes you just have to dive in and try it.

If you look at my career, you'll find that the same record doesn't show up more than once. I try to challenge myself with every project.

I try every day to do something that I've never done before or make some sound that I've never made before.

I've been lucky enough to do a lot of very interesting things, and every time, I've been like, 'I want to put everything into this because I want to see how far I can go with it.'

With each book, I'm trying to do something that terrifies me.