Oscar Peterson Quotes

In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

I suppose we'll make money off our album and our singles and stuff, but, like, they were made as we wanted them, exactly with what we had to say, and done exactly how we wanted them, right? And, like, we didn't put them out to make money. We put them out because we wanted to do them, do you know what I mean?

Despite whatever commercial kind of success you might have or radio success, I don't want to do something just to get as many people as possible to listen.

I was never writing for commercial success. It's nice that it has come, but it is not important.

I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.

I've never personally criticized anyone else's music, but I know that the public's real problem is not the music I make but the perception that I play simple music for money only and for the notoriety and to increase my popularity.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

I would rather fall flat on my face than try to just make a quick dollar by making music that fits into the radio format right now. It does nothing for me.

A film has to be for commercial success as well as earn you respect as an artist. You don't want to do only things that are designed to run commercially, and neither do you want to do things that get acclaim but don't run.

If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately.

Yet I never want to make a movie purely for the money.

My goal was never to sell many records.

I've passed on a lot of huge-money jobs. Money doesn't enter into the decision-making. If I do a big blockbuster, it's about how big an audience you'll get and where you can take them.

I'm just not interested in selling out to get on the charts and make people happy.

I like to go from mainstream movies to more artsy films. I don't sign on for the money. Maybe I should, but I don't. There's always a good reason for doing something.

In the whole course of our work at the theatre we have been, I may say, drenched with advice by friendly people who for years gave us the reasons why we did not succeed... All their advice, or at least some of it, might have been good if we had wanted to make money, to make a common place of amusement.

Selling another 10 million albums is not a priority. Putting out something you're proud of is.

And frankly, when I made that record, hit songs were not what I was trying to achieve.

Who decides what is and what isn't punk? I want to write songs that people hear and feel, and I want to be successful and reach a big audience. I'm not trying to be the coolest guy in the world; I'm trying to write songs that mean something to people. As you get successful, sometimes you lose one set of fans and gain another.

I think it's dynamite, the way my career has just kept moving, even when people didn't know it did. I made such interesting films, but, yeah, they're not necessarily the big movies that go to the supermarket. I don't need those movies, because I don't wanna do them.

I don't like working with hitmakers. I don't want hits! You're not even allowed to say that word around me.

I have cut four albums so far, and all of them have been trendsetters and commercially successful. I believe that once you start taking art in commercial terms, it ceases to be art.

I think I deliberately sold out a couple of times. I picked the songs that I thought would do well in the marketplace, even though I didn't really love the song.

I just don't want to do a movie because it paid me a lot of money.

If I'd just been interested in record sales, I would have taken one of the deals I was offered after 'Soapstar Superstar,' made a quick covers album and probably had some success for five minutes. I decided that wasn't for me.