Kenya Barris Quotes

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

Usually, I create tunes that are fragmented. I think the biggest obstacle for people with their creativity is that they feel they have to sit down and create this finished, polished product.

Trying to force creativity is never good.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

If you have the ideas, and you're a creative person, then you don't really differentiate in how your ideas manifest themselves.

Artists today think of everything they do as a work of art. It is important to forget about what you are doing - then a work of art may happen.

People ask me, 'What's your next film?' And I never know.

Maybe some people, when they sit down to write their great novel or make their great record or paint their great painting, they have it all planned out in their head. But for me, it's never worked that way.

I don't fight creativity. I don't fight against not being creative. If I'm not being creative, I'm not forcing it.

Having imagination it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that if you were unimaginative would take you only a minute.

I want to do nothing chic, I want to have ideas before beginning a piece.

I'm very interested to see how this new painting will go - I know I want it big and stark, and as I said, I follow the muse, and that's when it always works perfectly for me.

As a creative person, you want to start with a blank canvas.

Conception, my boy, fundamental brain work, is what makes all the difference in art.

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas.

A good artist has less time than ideas.

You cannot just be working in a vast, air-conditioned loft space and think you are going to make a decent painting. Francis Bacon had a special studio built, and he felt completely emasculated in there. I have to be somewhere comfortable.

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.

My goal is to think of nothing when I'm writing a song because too many influences could sabotage a potentially amazing song.

I'm a believer that you shouldn't really talk about the drawing until you're done with the drawing.

As I get on and films take four years to complete, I tend to have a hankering for very short projects so you can move on to the next idea. It's the ideas I'm interested in. What comes out of your head.

You can't rush inspiration.

Whenever I finish a movie, I usually go through a period where I think I'll never have another idea. And then, somehow, you get another idea.

I've worked with people who wanted to be creative every day: it was like a goal to arrive with something very special. Sometimes it's just disturbing, because special is good when it's needed. But when it's not needed, it's confusing, and you go away from the authenticity by a strong desire to be unique and singular.

I don't even think about maintaining a relevance. I just think about what do I want to paint, what am I gonna do now, what am I gonna do later.