Mark Morris Quotes

I love bands that can collaborate, and I feel like the Rolling Stones wouldn't be nearly as great as they are if it wasn't for them having a real group.

I think getting the rest of the guys in the band to write is important.

When you're in a band and there's five of you, you have to accommodate five people in every song.

With four people you can create one very strong kind of energy, but if you can get 65 people working together, and swinging together, that's a whole other kind of energy.

With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'

The group-effort sound in recording of 'Sea Lion' is like, you really hear all the people in the room and hear them interlocking. There's a real freight-train energy of all these people at the same time playing.

The whole period has taught me that I enjoy being part of an ensemble rather than just a front man. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy that too, but I get more enjoyment out of really listening to everyone.

I just like to work with other people, and I like things that are kind of a little bit bigger than that. I don't know. I just feel like a solo record just kind of gives me the willies a little bit.

I've tried to force a solo before, but sometimes it's like, 'That thing don't really fit, man!'

When I make a record with My Morning Jacket, I love what those guys do, so I don't have a need to play bass or drums or anything, because we're doing that as a unit.

Any musician in any band - for a really good band - you know your part in the band.

As a jazz musician, you have individual power to create the sound. You also have a responsibility to function in the context of other people who have that power also.

Bands are about these little relationships that make everything tick, and when you create new music you're testing those relationships.

As an improviser I'm now pretty comfortable with trios, so I'm thinking of working up to quartets.

When you work in TV, it's such a group effort, it's not about you.

Movies are a team sport now, and I want to play singles.

I like to collaborate on my music. The creative process is fun, and you get a lot of ideas from having discussions about it. Ultimately, the final decision is mine.

I never considered myself a songwriter, but now since I've been working with Nick Lowe, I am contributing to an extent. But I'm the guitarist and he's not, so we compliment each other in a way.

And you don't want to just totally mess up the rhythm when you're playing with Bob Dylan.

It's very hard to write a song alone. It's only by jamming that you can get a song together.

Writers, actors, anybody working on an ensemble-type thing, there are going to be some creaks in the beginning. It seems like there's tremendous potential in just letting things sort of breathe a little bit. It's tremendously important.

I'm used to being a small part of a massive production.

If you are gonna participate in a band, you've got to be a band member in good standing, and you've got to think about the needs of the whole.

I've been in all kinds of various arrangements of chain of command, and I was very comfortable - and everybody was - and I think the music shows that. I'm an honorary Foo Fighter, I guess. Or alumni or something. I'm proud to be one.

Film is a collaborative art form. If you're not being collaborative, you probably shouldn't be working in film. You don't do it on your own. People who understand that, cultivate that, get the best results.