Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

Some day I'll make a film that critics will like. When I have money to waste.

I've talked about this a lot, but 'The Witch' took four years to finance because there were certain compromises I wouldn't make.

Don't make a film if it can't be the film you want to make. It's a joke, and a sick joke, and it'll kill you.

When the business starts shaping the art, or the delivery of the art, then it's not right.

In the commercial theater, I've been pretty fortunate. The producers that I've worked with have allowed me to define the artistic integrity, the artistic limits of the work.

I always think of my films within the context of where aesthetics meet economics. That's the nature of making art - not being naive about what is possible and getting what you need to tell the story you want to tell.

I want people to come see my films and enjoy them, but at the end of the day you can't control what people think.

The great artist is a slave to his ideals.

As an artist, you want to make good stories and create good art; as a businessman, you want to make money and make sure the investors are happy. The two will always clash, unfortunately.

I had a sort of bad experiences as a playwright early on, when directors were putting in huge concepts that I didn't intend, or they were stylizing something that was compromising the play, so I started to think like, 'Well if I'm going to fight against this, I should learn how to direct.'

The great thing about Stephen is that he sees the movie as a separate thing, I think. He wants it to capture the essence of the book, and if he feels that's been done, then he's not too particular about the details. I think that's why he's happy.

When you start out, you have to make compromises, which include doing films of lower quality.

There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial.

Since childhood, I'd dreamed of making a film, but producers in France and Germany wanted to make commercial films with chinoiserie. I refused.

What happens with artists, or people who start off doing things for the right reasons, is that you slowly start to paint yourself into a corner by doing what people outside of the creative world are asking you to do, and I think that's antithetical to being an artist.

It's important to make art that you intended to make. If it gets compromised later, that's not a good thing.

Of course, I want to sell records, and of course I want to get played on radio, but it has to be about making the record that I'm proud of.

You hear it said time and time again by successful directors: You have to make a movie for yourself. Don't make it for anyone else.

I don't necessarily go out and try to do something that's going to be just something that will please the audience. I'm not interested in doing something where I get the most people to come see the movie at the same time and they get the biggest explosion. I'm not interested in that.

I'm worried a lot of our work day as artists is a producer's creation - not an artist's creation.

I will do films I want to make. I will never make a film for commerce.

Commercial theater, in its agenda to appeal to everybody, is often at the expense of the unique vision of the artist.

Art should be able to be innovative without compromising itself. That's why I believe artists should have bigger preoccupations than checking the price tags on their work or becoming curators' darlings.

I really believe in not compromising your art. I feel like I've never compromised my art.

After the 2009 'Cult Of Static' touring cycle ended, I felt that, as a band, Static-X had accomplished everything we set out to accomplish, and now I could finally take the time to do my own thing and make a record that is completely my vision without compromising for anyone or anything.