Tom Kitt Quotes

Yes, the more I go through life I realize that there's really no separation between practice and art at all. The two things more and more become one rather than two different aspects of my life.

I write and rewrite and rewrite and write and like to turn in what I think is finished work.

I think it's almost impossible to edit something to death. I think you can make things better almost indefinitely.

What I've learned from sketch is you can get it as perfect as you want, and it's never going to be perfect.

I write a melody and then change it and change it until I get it the way I like it.

When we get together and rehearse, which is always living with each other, we always talk about what would make it better, what would mean more, what would say more. So we're always improving and growing.

I'm one of those actors who likes to do it wrong nine ways before I come to the tenth way, which is the way I think it should be.

I go on at least 2-3 auditions a week in the pursuit of more work. So I'm constantly working on material and constantly honing and trying to perfect a craft that is never perfectible - it's always new, and it's always different. It's always a work in progress.

You have to make thousands and thousands of drawings before an illustration is perfected.

Some people like to purge out a draft and just let it go and then go back and fix it, but I'm a writer-rewriter. I can't move on until I feel like it's presentable.

Most creative work is a process of people passing ideas and inspirations from the past into the future and adding their own creativity along the way.

I'm not suggesting that the play is without fault; all of my plays are imperfect, I'm rather happy to say-it leaves me something to do.

Ang Lee is very precise. He will show you everything, and will let you know what he is thinking about the whole project. There are a lot of rehearsals before shooting, and you already reach a certain standard. Then he will ask for more.

I always treat each take as a rehearsal for the next take. That way you can find stuff and keep adding and playing until they tell me to stop.

When I write something, I constantly rewrite.

There's always a group of songs that I'm working at. Some of them are 10 years old, and some of them are just a few weeks old. I'm always trying to adjust these songs to some position where I can bring them to completion.

The wonderful thing with some of the things I've done - most of them, really - is to be trusted. To be able to do your thing, to work on it, hone it into my gem of creativity!

I think anyone who makes products has this simultaneous joy and, almost, shame looking at it. You look at it all day, and all you can see is all these things you want to make better.

So many of my paintings, people would be like, 'What more do you have to do?' But the smallest little things make all of the difference.

Novel writing, like so many things in life, is an iterative process. You come at it again and again, working at it like you would a piece of pottery or a stone sculpture, chipping away the parts that don't make sense, smoothing over the rough edges.

I be on some, perfecting my craft, just making sure the music is all the way there.

I doubt Picasso ever painted a picture in an hour, he took his time, looked at every detail and made sure it was perfect.

I always try to make my next song better than the last.

Everything I write goes through a lot of drafts. A hundred rewrites is not unusual for me to go through - the last fifty maybe just going back and forth on a single line or word selection.

I've always believed that you have to have the skills before you destroy the skills. If you want to be crude, be crude, but don't be crude because you don't know how to do it, because you're not perfect at drawing and pattern-cutting.