Jay-Z Quotes

I think that's always the hope - I mean, I can't speak for others, but I think other artists, no matter what type of medium they are using - whether it be from painting to acting to dancing, songwriting, or anything like that - I believe the desire is to get to the truth, and I think it's really hard to tell the truth.

I write my songs because I've lived them.

In general I think that in art you only have the responsibility to tell the truth.

It's really important to me that the music that I release is true to me and important to me.

Rozay is an artist himself so he understands the importance of being true to your work.

Music is such an intensely personal thing for me, and I knew if I was going to do it, it would be in my own way.

An actress must be a woman whose emotional perceptions are true, and to make them so, she must have a fine contempt for any art or thought that betrays them for something false.

I think most of my songs are based on an emotion and in every song I write, there's at least a partial truth.

The whole process of music for me is something absolutely honest and really naked and bare, so I never forced myself to write in French.

Well, I make every song I sing personal. I've never chosen a song that wasn't.

I don't like to be entertaining. I don't like the feeling of being entertaining. If there was a musical or a comedy that was not just for entertainment but was rooted in something I could relate to on a real level, then I think I would do it.

I'll never sing something that I've never been through. So even if I didn't write it, I have to have at least experienced it.

My purpose is to make a movie to make you warm. To give you some heat. Now, this rational world has become a place where only what is cool is good. Do you cut the movie on the basis of the beat of modernity or the basis of the beat of your own heart?

The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.

As an artist, as an actor, as a writer, you have to use what's personal to you. You have to be personal about your work; otherwise, it doesn't ring true.

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.

I don't really see how any song can not feel contrived if it isn't honest, and how could I write honest songs if I don't write about stuff going on in my life and how I'm feeling?

I'm not afraid to use my personal experiences and put them into a song. I think that's when you get the best stuff anyway, when it's real emotion.

I'm not just painting for painting's sake. I want to be truthful.

While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies in a reality that is felt.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

I think every artist should follow their vision, their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for.

When I'm writing, I mean what I'm saying - there's a lot of me in each song.

Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart. It took me a long time to understand that.

On one level, I must never lose touch with my audience. But I must, at some point, stop trying to get everybody to like me, and be true to the thing I think I need to say.