Antoine Fuqua Quotes

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas.

There's never any pressure on the music having to be something.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

I don't make judgments about my own work, and I don't analyze it; I just let it happen. That applies to everything I've done.

For as long as I've been making movies, I really don't know a lot of the technical side. I mean, I've actively and consciously tried to avoid learning that stuff. I just want to be open and receptive to what's happening in the moment, and I don't want to force anything.

I'm very much a man of the moment. I can think about an idea for a year, two years, even four years all right, but what ever is going on with me the moment I write is gonna work it's way into the piece.

Don't think. The worst songs I've ever written happen when I think.

I get a sentence, an idea, an image, and I start. I don't know anything beyond it. I follow it.

If you over-think, it affects things too much; I work instinctively, like painting in a way. Think too much, and you ruin everything.

I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story tell itself.

I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.

You don't know what inspires you. You like to think you know what inspires you, but in the final analysis I don't think you really do. It's great to look at a blank sheet of paper, you know, and walk up to an instrument and not know what's gonna happen. It's the most challenging thing I do.

I start each book when it's ready and never before.

Most songs I write are spur-of-the-moment-type things. I have to be spontaneous. If not, songwriting can bore me. There is no pre-design or idea of what I am going to do when I go into the studio. It's all like that for me. I could go in and write two or three songs in an eight-hour session. You can't over-think songs. You just can't.

When you make art, you get really invested in it. When art happens by accident and you were just along for the ride? It's way more fun.

I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote 'Search.' There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove.

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

To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts.

I know Charlie Kaufman really well, for instance. Charlie Kaufman starts a story, and he has no freaking idea where he's going. None. Zero. And he doesn't want to know, because there's a little bit of death in that.

I used to look at composing music as problem solving. But as I get older, it's not about problem solving anymore. There are no solutions, because there are no problems. You just turn the tap and it flows out.

In photo shoots, I rely on instinct. Which is not to say I don't bring ideas to a project or consider it beforehand.

You can practice to learn a technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.

Well, I would say that music just happens with me, I'm not in the driver's seat when I am at the piano, the piano is.

When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you.

I've never sat down and tried to write something for some occasion. You just write the tune and stay totally wide open to everything. It'll find the person or persons who are supposed to do it.