Stephen Malkmus Quotes

He is gifted with genius who knoweth much by natural inspiration.

It can't be bought. It can't be taught. It must be caught.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

I suppose I've got a natural rhythm. When I was little, I used to just dance a lot and have some fun. I'd never been taught to dance. I've never been to dance school. I do my own little dance moves.

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

O fret not after knowledge - I have none, and yet my song comes native with the warmth. O fret not after knowledge - I have none, and yet the Evening listens.

When I was small I didn't really know what i was doing. I just sang and it came out sounding pretty good. I just do it and it happens.

For me, you have to not have a formula. You have to not even sit down and say, 'I want to write right now.' It has to just kind of come out. It's not something you can plan.

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 no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated, I would be a damn fool.

Most songs I write are spur-of-the-moment-type things. I have to be spontaneous. If not, songwriting can bore me. There is no pre-design or idea of what I am going to do when I go into the studio. It's all like that for me. I could go in and write two or three songs in an eight-hour session. You can't over-think songs. You just can't.

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote 'Search.' There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove.

Nobody taught Picasso how to paint - he learned for himself. And nobody can teach you to be a producer. You can learn the mechanics, but you can't learn what's right about a script or a director or an actor. That comes from instinct and intuition. It comes from inside you.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following one's nose, taking shortcuts.

You can practice to learn a technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.

As an idea occurs to me, I'll either follow it or not, but I'm more instinctive than master-planner about stuff.

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 don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time.

There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants.

Action, so to speak, is the genius of nature.

Choosing to write a play is some kind of surrender. I don't make an outline. I sit and work, and suddenly the door opens, and out it comes.

You can't force music; It just has to come to you.

Sometimes things just fall out of your head on the paper, and if you're smart, you learn not to touch them.