Jim McKelvey Quotes

I try new techniques and styles almost every day, so I'm always challenging myself.

I really believe in myself. I'm the hardest worker I know, and one of the best songwriters. There's a craft to it, and it takes a long time to hone it, and I work really hard at it.

I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art.

I doubt Picasso ever painted a picture in an hour, he took his time, looked at every detail and made sure it was perfect.

I refuse to write the same story twice. I keep experimenting. I keep learning how to work. I've been at it pretty much 50 years, and I'm now beginning to learn how to do the job well.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.

I think it's important for an actor to see the work they've done because every time you revisit a work you come up with a new way of improving it. It's a good way to brush up your craft and your skills, so I think it's a good thing to do, keep seeing your films.

I think as any artist you always want to grow; you always want to get better.

You can't rush an art form.

I just like to keep challenging myself, keep it varied. It's a craft, and I'm constantly trying to learn and get better at it.

Every time I make a film, I feel it gives me the chance to learn something new.

After writing quite a few songs now, I have not a method but a way of being patient with a couple of verses or a certain set of chords. I can match them up quicker now than I used to. The one thing you do improve is songwriting.

Architecture is a discipline that takes time and patience. If one spends enough years writing complex novels one might be able, someday, to construct a respectable haiku.

A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, our stitching and unstitching has been naught.

Anything is an art if you do it at the level of an art.

I think, as an artist, it's very important to continue to be challenged and feel challenged all the time.

With every project I've ever done, I've always treated it like I'm still in school. Each time you try to go a little further, get a little deeper, feel a little more, sculpt it a little better.

I hope what I do has an art to it, and as an artist you have to try new things and keep yourself entertained.

Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, you can get quite a lot done.

Every time I collaborate with an artist, I want to surprise fans. I want to do something new.

I think all artists need to try to improve, or their work gets stale.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.

I'm proud that with 'Bright Eyes' we've always experimented and tried to make a different record every time out.

This search for what you want is like tracking something that doesn't want to be tracked. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable.