John Zorn Quotes

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

Even if you're not releasing songs, the act of creativity is important. That's the part I love, when you're in the moment. The rest of it I'm not particularly interested in at all.

It is very bad for (an artist) to talk about how he (creates). It is not the (artist's) province to explain or to run guided tours through the more difficult country of his work. It's none of their business that you had to learn. Let them think you were born that way.

I know how demanding the process of creation is.

Since age seven, I've been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

Whatever it is that I thirst for in my current project tends to turn up in my following project.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.

Music is the doorway that has led me to drawing, photography, and writing.

Like all artists, I go through creative spurts.

My influences change all the time; they have to remain current, because they're the things that capture your imagination and make you want to go into the studio.

The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels at the completion of a work forms the germ of a new work.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

My ultimate search has been for a muse.

The seed of an idea laying dormant in an old sketchbook is fed the missing ingredient from a new experience. Trying to share some of these experiences, some of the wonders, is one of the reasons why I do books.

I think it's natural for a creative to be sensitive. If I'm in the studio and I write something, I think it's the greatest thing in the world; it's like my baby. I just made something out of thin air that exists now in a tangible form. It's the biggest thrill in my life.

Your creativity before it gets formed into words and songs is the actual substance. No one else can see it, right? Unless you give it the shape of a song or a painting or whatever.

Artists today think of everything they do as a work of art. It is important to forget about what you are doing - then a work of art may happen.

I think the greatest privilege you have as an artist is time to nurture what you want to make; that's super luxurious. For you to rush into something, that doesn't feel fun to me. I'm living life in order to be able to write about it.

Every artiste has a process.

Art is not the kind of thing where you get what you put into it all the time. So I learned to not expect anything other than the sort of joy of having a poem in front of me.

I've said, for a long time, my favorite part of my career is when I'm creating a new thing where I'm pulling from a new place.

Composing is like driving down a foggy road.

The one thing about being a creator, about being an artist, is that you get to explore your ideas. We're fortunate that we're in the position to do that, and I don't take it for granted.

Creative work is one of life's greatest pleasures, and the only one we will gladly interrupt.