Ed Kowalczyk Quotes

Art is about expressing the true nature of the human spirit in whatever way one wishes to express it. If it is honest, it is beautiful. If it is not honest, it is obvious.

It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing.

Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart. It took me a long time to understand that.

I feel as though there are things that I'm trying to do - you know, capturing truthfully some aspect of human experience - and I'm trying really hard not to be fake. And in writing, as in life, it's harder than you think.

Relevance, for me, is about being creative and doing things that you believe in, whether that's music or acting or painting a picture, or whatever that is.

When you're younger, you want to project an image of yourself through your work, but now, I just want to make something honest.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.

From a place of truth, I think artists or actors have to be real with what they're doing.

I feel like a lyricist is somebody that writes their own lyrics. Now songwriters and lyricists are two totally different things. You can't really be a lyricist if you didn't write your lyrics. There's no passion, there's nothing in it coming from you. It's somebody else's feelings and you just taking it and running with it.

I'm not really interested in myself in my writing. I can't see myself in the songs, even though I know different parts of me are there.

Please understand that I make music to express myself, and if you know anything about me, you know that I'm nothing but honest.

A lot of my songs are about things that concern me personally, not a heightened version of myself or any of the characters that I play.

When you eliminate vanity from an art form, and I would think that this would be any art form, what is left is an opportunity to be incredibly naked and truthful.

People hear that and say I'm being modest, but I am not a modest person, but I have to be truthful about what I'm doing and what I'm doing is channeling.

I always write what feels really true and honest and me.

If you find something to tell, tell it to your truest, though that make little to tell; the truer you speak, the more you will know to tell.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

I think anything that anyone writes that's any good is going to have a lot of autobiography.

Find out who you are and be that person. That's what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come.

Part of the very impulse of writing for me is actually wanting to get away from myself.

I always try to improve, to find new ways of expressing myself, to keep looking for truth and originality.

I never reflect or convey that which I have not experienced myself.

I feel at various times in my life that I've been at a point where I had to choose between a death sentence and a life sentence. And I want to live. What do I do to live? What do I do to be vital? And the answer is always creativity. The answer is always art.

I think the more important task for a young person than developing a personal brand is figuring out what she's great at, what she loves to do, and how she can use that to leave an imprint in the world. Those are tough questions, but essential ones. Answer those - and the personal brand follows.