Andrew Motion Quotes

I feel like there's a lot of pressure on artists to be 100-percent organic all the time.

When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

I always like to write myself into a corner. I think the best stuff comes from only having a few ways out.

The greatest danger for artists is total freedom.

What happens with artists, or people who start off doing things for the right reasons, is that you slowly start to paint yourself into a corner by doing what people outside of the creative world are asking you to do, and I think that's antithetical to being an artist.

The kind of films I want to make are struggling to get made. And if they are getting made, they're getting made on shoestring budgets with not enough time.

In my opinion, some of the hip-hop records that come out, people are willing to compromise. I'm not.

If the creative artist worries if he will still be free tomorrow, then he will not be free today.

I like television, but there's not as much freedom as there is in film or theatre, and I always felt that there is a certain pressure in being able to put out a product, but it's OK.

I play a certain style. I'm not willing to compromise that part of me.

I'm one of those artists who, if you'd let me tweak, would probably keep going and going, so it comes to the point where sometimes you just have to let go and make the decision, 'Okay, that's it.'

I realised that success and pure creativity are not very compatible. The more successful you become, the more you become a product of something that generates money. Instead of being able to move forward freely and do what you really wish, you find yourself stuck and obliged to repeat yourself and your previous success.

I no longer enjoy drawing people's pets. I just want to draw what I want to draw and have people not tell me what to draw.

When you start out as a TV writer, you get a lot of pressure from outside forces to fit into what they think people want.

Most writers censor themselves in awful ways. I do, too.

I used to never feel pressure to be creative; it's always just been a fun thing. And then suddenly, it's my job, and people are asking, 'Where's the record?'

The problem with my peers is they don't understand television. You have to work within the confines of what executives will allow you to put on TV. Otherwise, we've not done anything, we've not really struggled to change the culture at all.

I thought all good art is you doing exactly what you want to see. I didn't realise that's not even what I really like about art. Bands I liked weren't doing just what they want to do: they were finding their common ground with them and me.

I believe that a lot of minority writers stress about whether they get pigeonholed in writing about identity stuff, like you can't write about other things.

Self-censorship is the most devastating thing for an artist.

I know this as a musician: When you nail something, and you get so much attention for it, you want to strip that away and prove, mostly for yourself, that you don't need that.

There's so much control, so many executive producers, so many people looking over their shoulder, so many people trying to second-guess the boss. The space for writers and directors and actors to be creative is zilch.

Nothing could be more restrictive than working with people in advertising.

Expectations are kind of lethal for art, I think.

When one's not writing poems - and I'm not at the moment - you wonder how you ever did it. It's like another country you can't reach.