Ted Naifeh Quotes

With every project I've ever done, I've always treated it like I'm still in school. Each time you try to go a little further, get a little deeper, feel a little more, sculpt it a little better.

I think as any artist you always want to grow; you always want to get better.

Every record I do is a learning process for how I want to do the next one.

I tend to think that every new song I make is better than the last one.

I think it's important that your first film be your worst film, that one's life trajectory should go up.

Few ideas work on the first try. Iteration is key to innovation.

In terms of tackling different subjects, I can't really think of anything I wouldn't want to try; that's the fun of it right? Each new style brings new challenges - not that you shouldn't focus on one and master it, but it takes so long to make a film, you just want to have some variety.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.

I've been to the studio several times, and it's not that I'm not happy with what I've got, but each time I come away, I feel that I've learned something that I want to work on.

So many cartoonists draw the same year after year. When they find a style, they stick with it. They don't mess with innovation, and they become boring.

You can always improve on something, the technology is different today, but I would leave it well alone. If there was something that was incomplete, that might be interesting... because I do that on my website.

I don't know if people realize how hard I work, because sometimes people ask me for my secret. The truth is that I don't have any secrets apart from the fact that I've been directing theater and film for twenty years and trying at every stage to make my work better.

I've had to keep exploring different ways of presenting the music so I don't repeat myself.

I like to grow and experiment, and as an artist, it's about kicking the bar up a little.

The more you draw, the better you get.

I try new techniques and styles almost every day, so I'm always challenging myself.

Every time I make a new album, I get better and better.

We've always done what we do, and we go out and try and get better with each record we make.

Experimenting is part of the process. I remember when I was younger, I spent a whole year just writing on straight trap beats because I just wanted to be able to do that at a high level. So it's about perfecting your craft in every way.

I love recreating, and I love elevating - anything I do I want do ten times better every time.

I think it's important to evolve and make a different record every time as an artist.

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing.

I refuse to write the same story twice. I keep experimenting. I keep learning how to work. I've been at it pretty much 50 years, and I'm now beginning to learn how to do the job well.

If you take your last album & try to copy it, then thats sure to hell the way to stagnation. And that makes me bored...and if I'm bored then the music is boring and so are the band!

You create a blueprint of your best performance, and you're happiest the night you surpass that blueprint. That won't happen that often, but it will happen. It's like sculpting: you keep refining. When you have a piece that is yours, that is just you, that becomes obsessive; you think about it all the time.