Bill Withers Quotes

I think everybody should just turn off their TV machines and make up their own songs about whatever comes to mind-their couch, their friends their loaves of bread. Everybody's got their own songs. There should be so many songs out there that it all turns into one big sound and we can put the whole thing into a pickup truck and let it roll off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

It's really easy to project this whole ideology of what being an artiste is, and I'm just not down with intellectualizing it. I just think, if you feel like doing something, then do it.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

Why not do something strange and different for once? Artists can do whatever they want!

A creative person has to be alive. He can't borrow from things he's done in the past. He can't let his method choose his subjects or his characters. They can't be warped to fit his style.

It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter if you have training or a background in it. Just create something, and lend a piece of yourself to that art.

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

Usually I like to improvise. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the piece, I like to improvise because I think it brings certain freshness and a reality to it, as long as it doesn't go too far out of the box.

To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.

Trying to force creativity is never good.

Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

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

When one paints an ideal, one does not need to limit one's imagination.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it's about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you'll never do it this way twice. I've studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

I just want to be able to be creative.

The script is the coloring book that you're given, and your job is to figure out how to color it in. And also when and where to color outside the lines.

I always say that I'm at my best when there's no example of what the character is supposed to be. I thrive when there's not much and I have to create it.

With 'Friday Night Lights,' we were encouraged to make it our own and improvise as much as we wanted.

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.

There is spontaneity to my work.

I actually found not having a routine was inspiration.

You can't ever create defensively. You just have to create the next thing that really speaks to you.

Everything that I've ever made in my life is from my instinct.