John Mayall Quotes

The energy in the banjo, and the beef in the bass. They're good tools to express yourself.

I've told older friends to pick up the guitar because it's a great way to express yourself. It's not all about making money: it's about creating art and working with other people. It's a journey, and it's a really fun thing to do.

I don't understand how people live without creating.

It's very easy I think when you're a creative person to wait for the right thing and to start getting self-conscious about how you are going to express what you do and what's special about you. I would say in general, a lot of times the answer is that you just dive into something and you find your own voice through that process.

You know, we just buy music now. We don't make it any more. And that goes for just about everything. I think it's so important that people develop and subscribe to and have confidence in their own ability to make music, however rough it is.

At a young age, I really wanted to make music and make my own sort of thing. I'm sure if it wasn't music, it would have been writing, or it would have been maybe painting. I just always had the drive to try and make something with my hands and to just pull something out of myself and shape it and see it in front of me, if that makes any sense.

I love to photograph the tools of one's trade: Duncan Grant's paintbrushes, the typewriter of Herman Hesse, or even my own guitar, a 1957 Fender Duo-Sonic.

If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing - it doesn't matter. As long as we're creating, we're cultivating meaning.

Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.

I feel so fortunate to get paid to be an actor. I pinch myself. I get it from writing, I get it from baking, gardening... I sort of open myself to the creative flow, which is hard to do, by the way.

I think doing something creative is the most important thing to me, and I think it's probably just good for the soul for anyone, whatever it is. You don't have to be a film director - you can do gardening or something - but I think everyone needs to create something.

When it comes to music, it's my clothes, it's my guitar, it's my voice, it's my song.

The only thing in life that really gives me any peace is just being lost in the process of creating something, whether it's the film or painting and drawing, which has been a big part of my life, for a long time.

It is important to make your own stuff. Even if you are not an actor, it is important to not stop involving yourself as a creative person.

I don't want to wear my compositional tools on my sleeve.

I'm always gonna be all over my CD the most, of course. My talent is my talent. I ain't really tripping off no ego; I just like to make good music with good people.

I learned that music should be fun and should be a way to express yourself - that there aren't really any rules.

First you study photography, then you practice photography, then you serve photography, and finally one becomes photography.

My whole life, I've always had to be surrounded by creative things. I find it relaxing to be in touch with creations by other people.

If you want to read and you want to draw, that helps you to express yourself.

I like to be creative and I'm lucky that I have a couple of different outlets, and I'm lucky that I get to use them.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

Painting, music, photography, and visual art have been creative forms of expression for me for decades.

Dancing and singing are the two things that have stuck with me throughout my life.

I just love being in the studio, and that's kind of what I do when I'm not on the road. I'm just in the studio messing with stuff, and I love playing all the instruments.