Julia Holter Quotes

I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.

Once you decide that it is the art that is important and not how popular and well received you are, you no longer have an albatross.

I don't do any art to please any people.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

What's the point if you make something that's not you, and you're successful? You have to perform it the rest of your life.

Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.

I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.

I think the key to making records generally is to make 'em for yourself, regardless of the climate in the business.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel - not the way others think you should feel.

I could never sit down and say: I'm going to do an out-and-out comedy, just to prove to people I can. You've just got to do what you do. Just listen to your soul and do your art and do it for the right reasons, and then you can't fail.

If I like it, it's gonna be on my album. You can't please everyone.

There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes suck. I'm not trying to please the masses. It's not going to happen, so I don't try.

I sometimes think it's better to go with a bad movie that is true to a certain point of view than to take something and make people try to like it when they're not supposed to.

You can't be trying to make a film that pleases all people, you know, so it's not a concern of mine.

If you start to just aim for what the audience wants to hear, you're already hamstrung because you don't have any freedom.

If you're trying to please everyone, then you're not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don't think, in the long run.

To me, a critic is someone who gets paid for their opinion, and they're entitled to that opinion but I don't really put a lot of stock into their opinion. I'm going to cut the kind of records and the kind of songs that I like, and the kind of things that I enjoy doing. If critics dig it, that's fine, if they don't, that's fine.

There was a time, early on in my career, when it was very important for me to be liked by everyone. It meant that I was musically less honest with myself.

I never want to be in a position where I have to defend my material. It's too subjective. It's for other people to defend or not defend.

There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial.

I really admire people who concern themselves more with how they perceive the world rather than how the world perceives them. I think, as an artist, it's very important to do that. You can limit yourself a lot if you spend too much time caring about what people think of you.

If people like something you've done - or don't like it - this shouldn't determine what you write or how you write it. Those are two separate things entirely: your work and the world's response to it.

The most important thing I can say is to make music that moves you. Don't try and chase what's on the radio or what you think people want to hear.

Whether I'm writing for myself or someone else, I'll always write a song that I would feel comfortable singing.

As an artist, you need to be true to yourself and free and not put yourself in a box that contradicts with what you feel is needed for a song.