Colson Whitehead Quotes

There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes I feel like playing 'Hospital'. Sometimes I feel like playing 'Pablo Picasso'. I've been playing a lot lately. I do it as long as I feel like it.

For me, it's always just been about finding material that I think is creative and interesting and fun and something that can expand me and that I can hopefully do something with.

I wanted to be an actor. That was my real goal. But I wasn't any good at it, so I wrote my own material and acted through that. That's my idea of fun. I get to be all these things in the songs.

It's great when you can write a meaningful song that touches people, but sometimes you just wanna have fun and sing a silly song that doesn't reflect on you as a person.

I think people need to have fun with whatever they're doing - makeup, their clothes, music, live shows - anything you don't need to take too seriously, don't take too seriously.

Well, first of all it's entertainment. That stops us becoming too pretentious or thinking we're great artists.

What I like to do is just make good music, good movies, hopefully perform a good show full of energy and just have some fun.

I've always had this rule of thumb: If you have fun making it, then someone will have fun watching it.

For better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit. Millions of people toil in the shadow of the law we make, and much of their livelihood is made possible by the existence of intellectual property rights. But much of their livelihood - and much of the vibrancy of our culture - also depends on the existence of other intangible rights: The right to draw ideas from a rich and varied public domain, and the right to mock, for profit as well as fun, the cultural icons of our time.

For me, my music is fun. I don't really take my music that serious.

I know when to have fun, but when it comes to my music, I'm really serious about my career.

My lyrical content is all about entertainment.

I think all the music I do, which ties together, as far as I'm concerned, is fun and entertaining.

If anything, I've probably tended more toward humor in my writing and veered more toward pleasure in my personal life.

Writing a book is incredibly pleasurable, but very solitary. You have total control, but sometimes that can drive you insane.

If I find out I have to write today and nothing else, that’s a perfect day. I know a lot of people who are great at it and make it look easy who are tortured and miserable people. Writing for me is perfect peace.

Fashion for me is another way I get to express myself creatively. It is one of the fun things I get to do: to play dress-up, and create outfits and looks that aren't typical. I am an artist, so I like creating things.

People think, "Oh my god, you've been doing this job for so many years, it must get boring." It's like, "No, hell no," because I get to sing, I get to dance, I get to be on TV and in films, I get to do merchandising, licensing, show up at conventions, write, or take photographs for my book. There are so many different things going on for me that it never gets boring. It's always fun and interesting.

In art, something comes of nothing. Out of the thin air and the ether, you create a story. And that is intensely satisfying.

I would assume that there is a greater amount of joy for you in being able to write and help produce your own stuff and make a decent living, but not get rich versus always doing the other stuff that you don’t write, and make more money.

You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it.

I like to service the full audience of America, so I try to do things that are just real artistic, like when they don't have the most money, but it's a great piece of work. Then, there are big, fun comedies and big animated movies for kids. I want to do things for my nieces and nephews. Ultimately, we're trying to deliver something entertaining to an audience. As long as it can entertain the audience, and it makes me or my niece and nephew laugh or cry, then I think it's good.

As a producer, I really get to tell stories that I care about in a way that I want to. I get to shape them. I get to choose the collaborators. That's really gratifying as a storyteller. And also, frankly, it's really fun to create jobs for other people.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.