Shirin Neshat Quotes

The only time you actually are a spectator of your own work is the day you read the script.

I find that the time that goes by is actually your best friend when you are making a record. The passing of time gives you perspective on what you recorded and what you wrote. If something sounds good to you 12 months after you recorded it then chances are pretty good that there's something valuable about the part or the song.

Write something and leave it aside so you've practically forgotten it as much as possible, a month or so, then come back and read it as if you're reading it for the first time.

Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing.

I cannot judge my work while I am doing it. I have to do as painters do, stand back and view it from a distance, but not too great a distance. How great? Guess.

I could Photoshop for hours. I spend way too much time making thumbnails. I spend, like, two hours on my thumbnails sometimes just because it's, like, fun.

I very seldom read back into what I've written.

It has taken a great deal of energy, which has not been so difficult to summon as the necessary patience to wait, simply wait much of the time - until my instincts assured me that I had assembled my materials in proper order for a final welding into their natural form.

Time is the wisest counselor of all.

You know how some people write every day at a certain point? I'm not like that. I carry something around for a long time. I weigh the words and the sentences. I weigh the paragraphs. The process is much more meditative for me.

You can't rush an art form.

When you're editing, you want to be the perfect appreciator, not another writer.

I've been writing and wanting to direct for a long time.

If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more.

I got a lot of problems, but I'm really good at intuiting what I need to do to be happy with whatever I create. I know when to stop myself, I know when to start, I know when to leave something alone. I guess I just kind of indulge that completely, and so I just take my time.

When you're stuck, and sure you've written absolutely garbage, force yourself to finish and then decide to fix or scrap it - or you will never know if you can.

When in doubt, take more time.

I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind .... This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, … taking the necessary time.

Sometimes problems just have to sit and wait until we can see a solution.

I don't think it matters how fast you write. It's how long you thought about it. I like to think of it as a well filling up. I think about it until the well is full, and then I let go.

I'm a big advocate of revisions, of living with something for a month and then realizing what needs changing, what was lazy, what could be better.

There's a lot of research and time that goes into my shoots. I spend weeks on them, even for one picture.

You don't realise how long three years is until you go away and write an album.

I learned directing by editing because I saw all the mistakes I had made.

To me, editing is not something you can do in a rush because the artists themselves are not always their own best editors. Time is absolutely everything.