J. K. Simmons Quotes

First, I started with music singing, writing songs, playing music. Later, I got into acting. I'm not a brilliant musician or a brilliant actor. But, to me, they're still great vehicles for expression.

It's always interesting - how do you actually convey thought through song? We're used to the convention on stage. In film, we used to be used to it, and now sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You need to be fresh and really look at the material.

The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.

I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.

I am an interpreter of music rather than a composer of it.

In some ways, it's more rewarding to hear someone interpret a piece of music that you're a part of.

Musicians are also interpretive artists and we are just as creative as painters and writers. We interpret in a way that expresses ourselves.

Music is a living art. You re-create it.

There is something wonderful about singing and writing music, I think there is something special about creativity and the ability humans have in that area.

Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.

I've always loved to incorporate music into acting because I have a passion for both.

My music is a very personal reflection of me, whereas, acting a role, that's a reflection of another character.

I painted. I wanted to be a painter. I sang.

It's hard talking about acting, in a way, because it's like explaining a joke: I do think it loses something in the telling.

Music is an art form too. Sometimes other forms of art can be inspiring to the musician.

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.

I just don't understand why more actors aren't artists.

I love art, but I don't think I'm especially good at it. Fashion I think I could imagine, but I'm not really sure. I think it's easiest for me to picture myself in music.

I'm really not a songwriter, so if I hear a song, I feel it and like it, I'll do it. But I'll make it the way I want to hear it.

It depends how lenient you are with your definition of artist. If you're going to include those who tap dance at the high school recital, then maybe I am.

I'm not a signing or dancing man.

I really consider acting a high art.

My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.

I really know how to sing and create and put things together that entertain... be it controversially or be it from music or acting.

I think of myself as an interpretative singer and a songwriter.