Donald Glover Quotes

What drives me is to still feel creative and like I'm pushing myself as an artist.

Every artist has to grow, and has to challenge themselves with a new form of expression.

The artists I look up to are the ones who push their own limits.

I feel like every artist has an opportunity to create something new and to challenge themselves to reach out to a new crowd.

I try not to think retrospectively. It's important, as an artist, to look forward, always. I do try to take work that involves some challenge. If you approach a piece of work and you're going, "Yeah, yeah, I can do that," then that's kind of a red flag.

I definitely want to work with people who are artists and who are interested in being their best version of themselves.

I don't even think I'm that good at rapping, but I think what makes a great rapper - what CAN make a great rapper - is someone who wants to be better.

As artists, you always want to push yourself. There's always new territory.

For me, I am constantly forcing myself to evolve, because, I think, to stagnate creatively - there's a certain death that happens with that. Because if you're not moving forward and you're not evolving, you're devolving, and I don't want to go backwards. I want to be better at what I do tomorrow than I am today. I don't want to be worse.

I think there's a deep impulse in most humans to do creative stuff, whether that's music or art, photography or writing. Most people at some point in their life say they want to do something creative - they want to be an actor, a director, a writer, a poet, a painter or whatever.

I think that as an artist, the more that you can do to diversify, and kind of challenge yourself, the more you grow.

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.

Dancers, like all performing artists, like nothing better than to be challenged.

I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art what he thought it previously lacked. With me, it's what Yeats called the fascination with what's difficult. I'm only trying to do what I can't do.

I've learned that you can do something great, but you have to continue reinventing yourself as an artist. So by the time someone else is copying your style, you have something else to offer your audience.

I think most producers and MCs are constantly in this competition, but it's usually with yourself. It's usually wanting to be innovative: wanting to catch yourself when you're doing the same thing or throwing out the same art you've already done.

I want to make myself better and get working with some of my biggest influences and make the best music I can.

I have to do films for myself, films that make me learn. I also have to be an entertainer.

I believe there's no reason why we couldn't be entering a new age of musical theater if we continue to nurture young talent, take risks, and give them a playing field.

You want, as an artist, to be pushing yourself to do what you haven't done before.

When we did 'Back In The Game' on the Wu-Tang 'Iron Flag' album, I did a verse about gambling. I didn't want to be 'back in the game' or 'back on the block' - that's typical. I made it all metaphorical.

I want to make a better record than I made the last time. I want to grow. I want to discover new things about myself creatively.

You can't always do that which you can do in your sleep. That doesn't fulfill an artist. You're looking for places where you can grow, in some way, whether it's a large way or a small way. I want to grow as an artist, as a person and as a woman. I want to enjoy myself and my life and the company that I'm keeping. I want to bring something to the table that's different than anything else would bring, but that has its place and value, and then keep moving.

To look deeply into the lawn and see six shades of green - there is hardly that respite for you. And that's our job that we're doing. And it's even more demanding for someone like yourself, who is so extremely creative. But you have to move forward. You cannot just wallow or sit back and take in the accolades. They're wonderful, the accolades, and you appreciate them. But then you go on to the next moment. You have to always be going out to the end of the diving board and diving off.

I mean, I like to be creative because it challenges me to try to be better than I am as a person and I hope that in some way that that makes someone else think and feel something about themselves that then has given them the opportunity to grow.