Madlib Quotes

I never think about what others are doing. I do a film for myself, not others.

I will always want to do whatever it is that my heart is in, and whether I get paid for it or not means nothing. It doesn't matter. I'll do it if it means something to me and I want to be a part of it.

I only write music for myself, I don't try and appeal to anyone else.

I don't write songs, play music and tour, really, for anyone else but myself. It's something that I have to do to stay alive.

I, in the end, make art for myself.

But where there is no art show, I would still be painting.

I've never felt particularly ambitious or driven, that's for sure, although I like to create stuff, whether it's a little doodle, a drawing, a small painting or a movie or a piece of music, so I suppose I'm driven by that. Everything I've done has felt very natural, and it's happened because it's happened.

To make a living from doing something I love is fantastic. As long as people want to listen to me, I'll keep doing it. In fact, to tell you the truth, even if no one did want to listen to me, I'd still be doing it!

I don't do what I do to get nominated. I do what I do because I love it.

You make you work for yourself. It's the feeling of, 'If nobody ever saw it, that'd be fine, too.'

I feel a passion for what we're trying to do.I mean, why does somebody who's old who's a writer keep writing? Because that's who they are.

Maybe what I do isn't going to be acknowledged by people, but that's me. It's my nature to do things that are weirder and less understood and that was a path I needed to take

Don't dance for the audience; dance for yourself.

Are you going to be playing for the pure thrill of unreluctant desire?

When you do something you love, you have a passion for it. It comes naturally. Staying true to yourself and doing what you love keeps you going...everything else falls into place.

Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you're expecting a reward

We want to be famous as a writer, as a poet, as a painter, as a politician, as a singer, or what you will. Why? Because we really don't love what we are doing. If you loved to sing, or to paint, or to write poems, if you really loved it you would not be concerned with whether you are famous or not.

The book is first and foremost something I made for myself.

Play music that means something to you. Make it happen for yourself.

To me, writing is not a profession. You might as well call living a profession. Or having children. Anything you can't help doing.

It does not in the least concern me whether I shall have at the end of my life thirty people who understand or three hundred. I am like an artist who paints a picture because he must, otherwise he is unhappy - not unhappy, but he must obey that creative impulse.

Every work of art has its necessity; find out your very own. Ask yourself if you would do it if nobody would ever see it, if you would never be compensated for it, if nobody ever wanted it. If you come to a clear ‘yes’ in spite of it, then go ahead and don’t doubt it anymore.

People who write for reward by way of recognition or monetary gain don't know what they're doing. They're in the category of those who write; they are not writers. Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward. Writing is selfish and contradictory in its terms. First of all, you're writing for an audience of one, you must please the one person you're writing for. Yourself.

Am I motivated by what I really want out of life - or am I mass-motivated?

Motivation is like love and happiness. It's a by-product. When you're actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it.