F. Gary Gray Quotes

When I met Ram Charan, he told me not to worry about how much my films make. After 'Magadheera,' people began expecting big things from him. So he did films to keep up to that expectation. He advised me to not fall into that trap.

It doesn't matter even if I am slow or fast as long as my films are honest and carries my integrity.

If you start to just aim for what the audience wants to hear, you're already hamstrung because you don't have any freedom.

I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.

I write about what interests me. It's very dangerous when you try to satisfy an audience.

Success gave me confidence as an artist. And now I'm able to do what I want without anybody thinking it's dumb.

I am completely open to doing a romantic comedy, but I will never do something just for the sake of doing a specific genre or because it's the time or place to do a different type of movie. I think that would be a huge mistake.

Stand up for yourself and fight for your right to be the artist that you want to be. There's plenty of pressure from outside; people tell you how to dress and how to sing or what to sing, but I always felt like if I'm going to fail or succeed, I want to do it on my own terms.

I suppose we'll make money off our album and our singles and stuff, but, like, they were made as we wanted them, exactly with what we had to say, and done exactly how we wanted them, right? And, like, we didn't put them out to make money. We put them out because we wanted to do them, do you know what I mean?

I'm very selfish. I make music that I love because I only live once, and I'm an artist. I don't try to revolt against anybody, and I don't try to please anybody. I feel very strongly that I if love it, someone else will love it - not everybody, though.

I don't want to sign four films at a time, as acting is an art, and art cannot be done without honesty.

I don't make films for critics, and I'm not particularly interested in what they have to say, and they don't have a bearing on my audiences.

My biggest obstacle is trying to keep the music pure to what I want to release. I don't want any corporate suit telling me what story to tell.

Young people have realised that an artist is in charge of what they're doing - this crazy cynicism that artists were puppets has disappeared.

I just go in the studio and do what I love to do. People will be people, they'll come and go, they'll like you then not like you, I just try to stay true to myself first and that's what most important because that way when you are successful you can stand up and say look, I did it my way and I did it the way that I wanted to do it.

I used to just think about what my fans wanted all the time. But it just started feeling weird to me. I want to just show everyone who I am and stick to my vision. I have to trust myself.

I didn't want to do the whole, get the hottest person thing. I wanted to make sure every record felt right.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

I think the line is where you're in the studio, you're creating. That belongs to you as an artist. Nothing should taint that. I shouldn't be thinking about what the fans want, I shouldn't be thinking about what the radio wants, what the label wants, what your manager wants, a song for the chicks, a song for the street.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.

I don't want to sell my soul to Hollywood - to just make run-of-the-mill stuff.

Independent films, for the most part, to me, are not so independent. They often feel like people auditioning for a big commercial career. They often do not have independent spirit to them.

I wrote what I felt I had to write, and I'm willing to put my own sanity and my reputation behind it.

I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.