Aesop Rock Quotes

I want people to come see my films and enjoy them, but at the end of the day you can't control what people think.

It's tough to make music and make it your own, and not have somebody call it something you don't agree with but can't control. Sometimes the press doesn't realize how much power they have and how they can shape somebody's life. I think there's a lot of people just trying to make music and get their art out there, and their heads get f**ked by the press calling them this or calling them that.

My works have always been unjoined. People were always making variations of my works, and I just said, "I don't want to know." You can't put limits on those pieces. You can't be there all of the time when they're installed.

I realized in the early days I just didn't edit at all. But I think you become a little more cagey with your lyrics when you know more people are going to hear them and make assumptions about you as a person. Realizing that, you want to be a little more opaque.

I can't tell you how freeing it is to have my own label. For the first time in my career, I have total control.

I can shoot off my big mouth and write my shows and run my shows, and I can recognize how lucky I am because my position is rare and my position is privileged.

I believe in creative control. No matter what anyone makes, they should have control over it.

I want people to come see my films and enjoy them but at the end of the day you can't control what people think.

The reason I never wanted to sign with a big label was because I didn't want no one telling me how to make my music.

I went from a playing in a bar on a bar stool for free beer and tip money, where people weren't paying attention to me, to now I've got their attention. It's up to me to what I feed them with my music. It's up to me how I do that. I've put a lot of thought into how great the songs are, and how I want people to perceive me.

There is no such thing as an artist - only the world, lit or unlit, as the world allows.

I have just enough people paying attention that I have the freedom to be in charge. And I have a great record company - Nonesuch understands what I'm about.

I get offers to do huge-budget music videos with big production companies all the time, but I have no interest.

The potential success that could come with signing with a major label didn't quite outweigh how important it was for me to make my music the way I knew it needed to be made.

I let the audience use their imaginations. Can I help it if they misconstrue my suggestions?

One can never anticipate how audiences will respond. One of the lessons that I've learned over the years is to that no matter what my feeling or opinion might be about a given film, once you give it to the audience, they own it.

A lot of big whoever producers, they come with a song and they say, 'Sing this,' and I'm not that girl.

I didn't feel compromised as an actor, and allowed other people's fingerprints all over that aspect.

An artist cannot be responsible for what people make of their art. An audience loathe giving up preconceived images of an artist.

We've been able to have our cake and eat it, too. Every song, every T-shirt, is absolutely a pure expression of what we want to do. And it connects.

I learnt early on that your audience take the songs in the way they want to rather than the way you might want them too.

It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists... I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.

Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it's out there in the world it's no longer ours.

In general, I don't feel artists should need producers.

If you are handed something, it's a blessing and a curse. Look at hip hop artists, they produced everything themselves. Even people like Robert De Niro are getting into production. Again, it's art vs. marketing. Not everyone can take the risk. You have to break a few eggs to make a good omelet.