Count Basie Quotes

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Everyone's encouraged to put things in their own words, to discover new things. So there's definitely an element of dynamic improvisation, for sure, which I think gives those scenes some of their energy, some of their electricity.

I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.

It's really easy to project this whole ideology of what being an artiste is, and I'm just not down with intellectualizing it. I just think, if you feel like doing something, then do it.

I actually found not having a routine was inspiration.

You can't ever create defensively. You just have to create the next thing that really speaks to you.

I just write what I think is funny, or interesting, and hopefully everything else will take care of itself. There's no strategy to anything.

Just write what comes to you.

I'm so happy when someone does something original, and there's no focus group or planning committee. If the cinema doesn't get an injection of that once in a while, we're in trouble.

You shouldn't think about technique when you play. You have to be you. It cannot be about, 'I can play this, and I can show you that.'

Real greatness comes from that sort of spontaneity of the moment that takes it into another level. That can never be planned; it happens or it doesn't. And you can't force it.

Give your mind as long as possible to come up with something original.

A creative person has to be alive. He can't borrow from things he's done in the past. He can't let his method choose his subjects or his characters. They can't be warped to fit his style.

You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.

Creativity doesn't follow titles. It just comes from where it comes from.

Be as unique and original as possible.

But I do nothing that I don't like, such as "inventing" up to the arty or "down" to the corny. I happen to relish a certain type of corn. What I think is the really dangerous approach is the "let's be artistic" attitude. I know that artistry just happens.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They must happen out of you.

Some of the screen's best moments were realized because a director went against all reason, all logic. No matter how incredible a story seems, it can be made credible. If you feel an insane idea strongly enough, you've usually got something.

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

Once in a while, I do these things that would make the 10-year old version of me laugh. I don't know why. You've got to do something a little bit immature. I'm surprised at how often those are my best ideas.

I think it's better when you're natural, when you just do whatever you want, instead of doing classes where I see all these other people holding back because they've been trained with certain skills or techniques. I'm like, whatever.

My best stories come out of nowhere, with no concern for form at all.

We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising.