Chris Lilley Quotes

My instinct about painting says, 'if you don't think about it, it's right.' As soon as you have to decide and choose, it's wrong. And the more you decide about, the more wrong it gets.

There was a beautiful time in the beginning when I just did it and didn't analyze the consequences, but I think that time ends in everyone's work.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

I really like to experiment. That's the only way I can work. It's instinctive.

The more you think, the more you ruin things. Art has to come viscerally; otherwise, forget it.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

Painting is almost like a sport. It's like this action thing. When I do it, I'm really not thinking. The paintings are like a diary that I might not want to read again.

It's important not to think too much about what you do.

The music, for me, doesn't come on a schedule. I don't know when it's going to come, and when it does, I want it out.

It's TV: you just have to jump in and just do it. You don't have time to think about it. You don't have time to write a history, which makes it even better. I go with first instincts.

I don't make judgments about my own work, and I don't analyze it; I just let it happen. That applies to everything I've done.

I just write what I think is funny, or interesting, and hopefully everything else will take care of itself. There's no strategy to anything.

Everything Dre and I do is completely on feel. We don't prepare for anything... we only work on instinct.

The moment always dictates in my work. What I feel, I do. This is the most important thing for me. Everybody can look, but they don't necessarily see. I never calculate or consider; I see a situation and I know that it's right, even if I have to go back to get the proper lighting.

For as long as I've been making movies, I really don't know a lot of the technical side. I mean, I've actively and consciously tried to avoid learning that stuff. I just want to be open and receptive to what's happening in the moment, and I don't want to force anything.

I'm pretty critical, but I'm also pretty good at letting go once it's done. There's this existential argument that comes in, at some point, when you're over-thinking the songwriting process. There's no guarantee that the more time you spend or the more you concentrate on certain aspects that that's going to produce a better result, especially in the arts. Some of the most brilliant things that someone might do could happen in three minutes because it's something that just occurs to them.

I'm not being analytical. I just create everything intuitively. If you're too analytical, what you're doing probably ends up being too specific.

People think the Beatles know what's going on. We don't. We're just doing it.

I'd be lying if I said I went into any project with any premeditated ideas of what's gonna happen or what's gonna be perceived as a result of it. I just kinda work on autopilot and then, when it's done, it's done and I have more of an internal sense of when that is. And then I leave it up to the audience to decide if one's better than the other.

Don't think. The worst songs I've ever written happen when I think.

I'd like to write the way I do my paintings, that is, as fantasy takes me, as the moon dictates.

U2's best work has always been when we didn't know what we're doing.

Whenever I start to really think about what I'm playing, I may play it better musically, but the feeling isn't there.

I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.

I start each book when it's ready and never before.