Wayne Shorter Quotes

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

You get caught up in a cycle at some point, so I broke the cycle and decided; I'm going to really write a lot of books, because I need to get in touch with that part of myself in order to make more music.

The more I do in my life, the more I can write music about new experiences.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

No one can learn to love by following a manual, and no one can learn to write by following a course. I'm not telling you to seek out other writers but to find people with different skills from yourself, because writing is no different from any other activity done with joy and enthusiasm.

Everything I know about life I learned from the daily practice of sitting down to write.

Whenever I'm done with an album cycle, I still wanna write music. If I'm bored when I'm at home, which never happens, my first instinct is to go to the piano and bang something out.

You learn from experiences, and I suppose that's where I color most of my music, from experiences.

My urge to write is an urge not to self-expressionism but to self-transcendence. My work is both bigger and smaller than I am.

One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.

People should practice an art in order to make their souls grow and not to make money or become famous. Paint a picture. Write.

I did not know how to paint or even what to paint, but I knew I had to begin.

Musicians always have music in their heads about their perceptions of the world.

Before I wasn't sure what I wanted to say, but now, I have had so many different experiences that they have given me what I want to get across in my music.

I don't think of work between albums. Of course, I go through regular life and I live and I experience different things, good and bad, and it does help me, but I don't think about writing or what I'm gonna do with whatever's going on while I'm going through it.

I view life as a learning experience. It is not so much all about music; it is about what happens when you are doing the music.

Filmmaking is incredible introspective. It forces you to sort of examine yourself in new ways.

It's a very hard thing for all of us to accept ourselves at all the different stages - the horrible side, the wonderful side, the adorable side - and who you are as a grownup. And then to bring what you learned as a child to that grownup: that is the magic of creativity.

The music I make and the process of acting, for me, are both about trying to understand people and get inside what makes us tick. That's the main thing that excites me. Our sense of who we really are and what drives us.

I've enjoyed the process of understanding who I am through my work and who I am in relation to others: the intense collaboration that acting requires and thrives in.

I feel that I am pregnant by music, and it is the father and mother of my child.

The words come from here. From memories, from dreams, from people I've known. I'm always writing and reflecting on life. I want to suck it all in.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

As an artist, you keep learning. You draw out different parts of you.

I don't think music teaches about mundane, everyday life. It teaches us what it is to be a human being.