Ayumi Hamasaki Quotes

I just want to make my music, and I want it to stand on its own.

I didn't leave the band to go solo so much as to stop feeling like a production item.

Honestly, I never felt like I wasn't an artist on my own. I always felt like the music I made was mine, whether it was part of a collaboration with people.

Nobody is really going to bring my vision to life like the way that I am. Before I was doing my own music videos, it was not really my vision.

I didn't come to Hollywood to be subservient to anyone else's vision.

My music has always been my solo project.

Very few artists are as independent as I am mentally, physically, spiritually and technically. I sit in my home studio and record things by myself. I don't need to get anybody's approval or validation.

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

My job is to just express something that I want to express. And if I'm ahead or behind the curve, that's for others to decide.

But if I really want to produce my own work and tell stories, then I will.

The greatest success is creating whatever you want without conditions. I don't do commissions unless I really want to, because it's like having a job.

If I write the song, I get to name it.

I don't make films for other people; I make films for me.

I enjoy making solo albums because over the years it's evolved into more of a genuine personal expression of story-telling and day dreams, and I work in a way that has more control.

Doing my own album provided me the opportunity to say whatever I wanted.

When I get to do whatever I want, I'm perfectly happy. I've found that the best scenario is that I just do what I do, and if somebody wants to be part of it, they should work as a conduit for what vision I have. They should help me complete the universe.

The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible. So I'll play in bands and record and play songs with other people, but for me it's a form of expression that all I need is me. I don't need cameras or agents, I can just have a piano and sing and feel totally verified.

It's a luxury to not have to just be performing with other people to have my music heard.

I just make the movies I want to see. I've always been that way.

I never wanted to be a feature - that was never the goal with my music. I didn't want to just live through other people's work.

My art and my creativities were totally something that was of my own heart and mind. I could never let anybody dictate to me what I should write and how I would write it.

Acting is a job of permission. Someone has to give you permission to do it. But I have started to be like, 'I only want to do things that I want to do,' and writing has afforded me the luxury.

I didn't want to just be an artist and let someone else have all that control over me. I knew I would have to produce.

I don't want people to just hand me music and be like, 'Here, you sound good on this. Sing it.' I want to be able to say, 'This is me.'

I've gone places where they've told me what I need to do, what I need to say, who I need to be, what moves I need to perform. And at Impact I get to just be me. I have creative control to be me and do what I want.