P. J. Harvey Quotes

I think music needs danger; it needs risk.

I love to get to that place where I don't know what kind of music I'm doing; I don't know if it's any good. I don't know if it's anything. It's a big question mark. The idea is to have interesting results. That's my bottom line.

Especially with Fantomas, i'm just trying to stretch out what the band can do. Figuring out, really, on the job or on recordings, what I can or can't get away with.

The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.

Maybe the biggest thing that I've learned musically is that anything is possible. Things can work when maybe they don't seem like they can.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.

For me, making music is a continuous learning experience, and I think that it feeds itself.

I need to go where I'm not comfortable. I think that's the artist's job.

I think it's important as a filmmaker, as any person working in the arts, that you've got to try new stuff and challenge yourself and take chances.

Never try to make the same record twice, even when people are screaming for the same sound.

I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.

Working with Prince, it's kind of like he's opened up this whole new world, especially with the horn players. And I'm like, 'Man, only if I had strings on this album, too.' And I'm like, 'I wish I had an orchestra.' So I just, you know - I just wonder what's next, you know. I just want to constantly push myself for more.

Certain jazz musicians just copy what was done 100 years ago. The music won't grow if nobody takes a risk.

My faith in my filmmaking changed on the heels of 'Titan.' It allowed me to pursue things that I previously would have questioned.

I think if you don't risk something in art, it's not really important.

Sometimes you write songs that don't all fit together. What do you, just throw them away? This might be a chance for growth and learning. It could be a horrible fall-on-your-face kind of experiment.

I try new techniques and styles almost every day, so I'm always challenging myself.

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

The only intention I've ever had creatively, as a musician, is to be as different from myself as possible.

'Some Kind of Monster' is a challenge, and 'Through the Never' is an extension of that. Even the album we made with Lou Reed, it was a challenge.

I always make a point to make my records different. Let's say I have a record that's influenced by hip-hop in an abstract way; for the next record, I'd try not to do that. They are all connected in a personal way but it's important not to repeat myself, because then I can always learn something about myself through my work.

I do music that makes me happy by challenging myself to go the extra mile and not do what everyone else is doing.

When I'm trying a new form- trying to do something I'm not used to doing, which was true of the novel.

It is an error common to many artists, who strive merely to avoid mistakes, when all our efforts should be to create positive and important work. Better positive and important with mistakes and failures than perfect mediocrity.

We all have to open our minds, stretch forth, take chances and venture out musically to try and arrive at something new and different.