Courtney Barnett Quotes

I always knew that I was an artist. I never expected to be able to make a living.

I want to be an artist artist, a real artist. I don't just want to do this for temporary money.

I finally got to the point where I decided I don't care if it's good art or bad art - it's what I do. I enjoy doing it, and people like it.

I still make more money as I do as an actor than director, however I don't want to be a commercial director.

I have made a promise to myself that I will have no limitations as an actor. I have realised I have to pay attention to the commercials or the business aspect of cinema, but deep inside, I am purely an artiste.

I could never deny myself bein' an artist.

I never was able to pay any type of bill doing the music that I was instinctually was making 'cause I loved it. I had to kind of pivot into doing the stuff that someone had taught me about to really get on my feet.

I don't sell millions of records. As a matter of fact, I'm not even interested in selling millions of records. I enjoy MCing. I make a decent amount of money. I can feed my kids. I keep a roof over my head. I don't have to sell a million records to maintain my lifestyle.

All the traumas I went through separating art from writing don't exist anymore. That's why I love being in rock 'n' roll. It's a whole life thing.

I get to sing and act and write and create and produce for a living and share art with people, and I feel like a piece of that is in honor of those who came before me.

When I was eight years old, I asked my mum, 'Mum, can I do two jobs?' And she was like, 'Absolutely!' 'Cause I'd like to act for 15 years and then direct for 15 years.'

I do have comfort, because as an actor you don't want that anxiety of wondering if you're going to continue with a certain role or if you're going to be employed the next year. It's nice to be comfortable with that and then you can concern yourself with the stories and nothing else. There's no other agenda than putting out a good product.

I'm not looking to be an artist to make money. I'm looking to be an artist.

I knew I'd have to go to work in real estate or something else or I could never finish my novel.

My life is in the art that I make, and I'm very happy with it.

The mindset of chasing that next #1 record doesn't exist for me anymore. It's more about being a well-rounded entertainer than being a pop artist. Obviously, it would be wonderful to have a hit record but I don't base my happiness on that anymore. It's about the accomplishment of a project that satisfies me. I just want to enjoy the ride.

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.

I don't paint to live, I live to paint.

Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter.

I'm one of those people who thinks you can have a happy life and still be an artist.

I don't just act to pay my rent. I really like doing it, so I get frustrated when I don't get to do it all the time, so short films are a really great way to be doing it and working with your friends, working on smaller, more specific things without limiting yourself in other ways.

I try to cover myself, to have another movie under way before the last one comes out. I've been able to just scrape by, holding out for good parts instead of taking anything.

My whole thing is I want to have a backup plan because maybe I won't get another acting job after 'Fame', maybe I'll want to give up on acting in five years or whatever and I want to have something else that I enjoy just as much as I enjoy acting.

I just wanted to be an artist. I didn't care how or what; I just wanted to express my artistic integrity, and I wanted the world to have a vision of what I was seeing in my mind.

I felt that if there wasn't going to be a good opportunity, then I would just go back to second units which I love, keep working with great directors, keep learning and knowing that the opportunity would come when the time was right.