Kristen Wiig Quotes

I can't be interesting, controversial, and the writer I'd like to be if I need everybody to like me and think I'm doing the right thing, because those two things, in my experience, never go hand in hand.

The minute you succumb to outside pressure, you cease to be creative.

If people like something you've done - or don't like it - this shouldn't determine what you write or how you write it. Those are two separate things entirely: your work and the world's response to it.

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

You can filter certain stuff - it depends what artist you are - but you're never going to be true to yourself if you're worried about what other people think.

I don't want to get myself in trouble - and I don't think I'm super important or anything - but I think it's so funny that when you look at the business and the way that people make decisions in their lives, whether they're in art or music or they're in industry, they forget that being unique is the answer.

No, I don't make my work in order to challenge or confuse other people's expectations - I only do what I find natural.

We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.

Discover your own style. Don't try to repeat what has already been written - have the courage to do your own thing and don't be afraid to do something different.

The message is risk, really risk. Be yourself. Create.

I think if you believe in an idea, then you should put it out there and be as original to the thought as possible without worrying about the risk.

One of the things with the second record, a word I held close to my chest was 'brave.' To take chances to go outside the box and explore. To continue to toss off any expectation that our fans or anyone else might have of us, to just tap into who I am as a writer and artist and really just operate within that freedom of creation.

I'm not afraid to have a really weird idea or, you know, take a really bad guitar solo.

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

In all the writers I admire, the common detonator is their courage to walk naked.

You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.

My advice to female directors is not to wait until you feel like your ideas have been pre-certified or until you think you've gotten some approval for them. Then it's too late! Follow your gut. That's hard to do, but the only way to be original.

I always try to be a trend setter. That's what I always tell young people when I'm giving them advice. To go with their heart and don't follow the trends.

Sarah Vaughan is one of my greatest heroes. She personifies what an artist is all about, taking risks, daring to go beyond the boundaries of safety and convention. It takes courage to share your vulnerability.

Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks.

If you do things, whether it's acting or music or painting, do it without fear - that's my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there's nothing to lose.

I love Lady Gaga. She's not afraid to take risks and be herself.

I think the key to great art and great artists is to just fully be yourself and not be scared of that, and be the extremes of your personality. Show the extremes of your personality and embrace the imperfections. Embrace the things about yourself that you might not like.

I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it.

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.