Chris Jordan Quotes

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

I mean my point as an artist is I'm on my own little weird journey across the sky here and whether or not anybody's listening, or listening to the degree I would like them to, at the end of the day has to be an inconsequential thing because I can't chase this culture.

I'm a mother, I'm a journalist, I'm an American; I'm all of those things, and it really complicates your job when you have all these things come into play.

Art is uncompromising and life is full of compromises.

When I was a teen, I thought I would have to choose between my writing or my music or my art, but it turns out it's a difficult juggling game but I can do all of them.

I don't like to be labeled, to be anything. I've made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it's counter-productive.

I gambled on having the strength to live two lives, one for myself and one for the world.

I made some good pictures, and I made some bad ones. I wasn't trying to build an image, though; I was trying to build a life for myself.

I think the good thing about Macklemore is that he is very precise about what he gets involved in. As you can tell, he's very passionate about what he puts his name on, because he talks about things people don't usually talk about, and his concepts are very, very passionate.

To be a good artist, you have to serve the work of art and allow it to be what it is supposed to be.

The only thing I want to be defined by is my music and personality.

Politics is politics; art is art. If you play a political role, you have to stop being an artist.

I have nothing to hide in art. The initial force alone can bring anyone to the end he must attain.

I put myself in the place of the listener when editing my writing. The last thing that I want to do is be preached at and told who to be or what to think when listening to an artist. However, I do want to be inspired. There's a fine line.

My biggest challenge was to make sure that the songs I did were who I am.

If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.

My number-one goal is to never feel like I'm strictly defining myself. The minute I feel like I'm doing that as anything - as theatrical, as feminist, as songwriter - I feel like the minute I name it, I'm stuck in a box.

The most important thing for me as an artist is having an identity.

I dislike when people try to pigeonhole me, when all I want is to do good work.

I'm an artist, I'm not an activist.

I moved back to Buffalo in 2009, and I had this moment where I wanted to have the best of both worlds. I wanted to be able to be in church and cook at home but then still get on a plane and fly back to New York and be this supermodel.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Art and politics must move closer together. Reflection and action must be equally valid in good men if history is not to take one course and art another.

I've never really thought of myself as just an actor; I always thought of myself as aspiring to be an artist, and an artist has to take risks and put himself on the line.

I realized early on that if I became an actor, I could play a writer and a sculptor and a painter and be all the things you just don't have time to be in your lifetime. I could get to learn about all of them.