Danny Brown Quotes

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 suppose we'll make money off our album and our singles and stuff, but, like, they were made as we wanted them, exactly with what we had to say, and done exactly how we wanted them, right? And, like, we didn't put them out to make money. We put them out because we wanted to do them, do you know what I mean?

There's a difference between making the music for a check vs. what you think you should be doing artistically and creatively.

My good films were independent and my bad films were not.

I don't make movies thinking: 'Oh, this is going to be a huge box-office hit.'

You have kids studying master class visual arts who are pushed to make films that will be successful economically; that's what they focus on. So they work for corporate interest instead of artistic expression.

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.

Yeah, I like to be the maker of the art. And I like and want the money. But I don't really dig being famous.

Despite whatever commercial kind of success you might have or radio success, I don't want to do something just to get as many people as possible to listen.

Several record companies had rejected my song 'Owner of A Lonely Heart' on the grounds it was 'too left field.' I never create to make a hit just to satisfy some record company executive's quarterly profit statement.

Anyone who thinks Peter Jackson would fall for market forces around him rather than artistic integrity doesn't know the guy or the body of his work.

I want to make serious work that engages with serious subjects. I'm very lucky: I get to more or less make what I want.

I'm worried a lot of our work day as artists is a producer's creation - not an artist's creation.

Record companies tell me to play something more commercial, but I don't want to do anything else.

I want to be an artist, not be in the business of making hit records. Once I figured that out, everything became clear.

There are no rules when I'm making stuff. That's why I'm glad I'm not signed. No one's telling me I got to drop this type of single or this video.

Robert Gober, for example. He doesn't seem like somebody who is just going to show in a gallery that asks him to show. He's just making his work, and when he's ready, he's going to show it.

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

It's very important that you never depend on money to fulfill your creative vision. If you do that, you're doomed to fail.

Do not set out to write with your eyes on the box office. It can't be done.

The worst thing you can do to anybody trying to be creative is to demand participation in their vision.

it's difficult in Hollywood to be allowed to try anything. It's all a terrible compromise. There is no time for art. All that matters is what they call box office.

I have a vision for everything that I make, but... I'm not that considerate about what I do. I do whatever is in my head and how it ends up tends to be the thing that it's supposed to be. It was never a premeditated decision.

If you are directing, you have the opportunity to put your signature on the bottom of the frame. You have the opportunity to say, "This is what I believe. That is my credo. That is what I wish to state."