Casey Neistat Quotes

I’m not producing movies to make money

Look, Salvador Dali did not paint because he needed the money. No conversation about materialism and music makes sense. You make music and that's that, it doesn't matter why.

There's something deeply satisfying when it succeeds, but I'm not going to do another book just to put my name on something and make some money if it's not something I deeply care about.

Writing changed my life. It has an existential dimension, and that's the same for every writer. Every artist has a moment of awakening, of happening upon an idea that grabs hold of you, regardless of whether you are a painter or a writer.

I've never made a movie to make money. I've never made a painting to make money.

To me that's what art is about - when you don't really have any control over your desires to do it.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

I could never even entertain the notion that it's an option, to not be an artist.

I've never really cared if I was famous for my music. It was just something I had to do.

I make music not to make money but because it's in me.

There's nothing ever monetarily or fame-seeking or any of the other motivations that sometimes go hand-in-hand with this profession. To me, it's just not like that. I'm on a journey of self-discovery and trying to avoid total existential crisis. That's the kind of operating zone that I'm approaching this business from.

It feels different.... When hip-hop was beginning for me, people weren't making the kind of money that they make now. It was for the love of doing it and having fun with it.

My work is more to me than just music.

The projects that I've been fortunate enough to do are all projects where I followed my heart. I didn't follow the money or the names. It's all about reflecting my life and my art.

If you're making music strictly to make money, you might as well find another job.

Once I found art, it was a wrap.

I'm really an artist. I really do this. I don't need the money. It doesn't matter to me.

I think the biggest reward is not physical. I rather obtain things spiritually. I mean, it's so cool to be acknowledged by the public, but that's not my goal. That's not why I make music. I would do it anyway, if there was no reward.

I was never in this for the money. It's all about the passion for the music.

As an artist, I often wonder what my purpose is or why I do what I do.

I don't want to be just a performer.

Everything I do creatively is never for money.

I really had to develop a core. I had to figure out, at my core as a writer, what did I value? What was I about? And I had to love it and take pleasure in it.

If you're just making a record to pay the bills, that's not a great idea because chances are it might not come out that good.

I try not to think about the idea of reaching more and more people, because once you get in that mindset, I think you lose the point of why you're doing it in the first place. Still, the best feeling I ever get is when I finish a song, and it exists, and it didn't exist before, and now it's there, and it makes me feel a certain way.