Juanes Quotes

I am most proud that I stayed true to the music of my soul.

I always make music that is true to my spirit.

I think that as long as you stay true to you when you're putting out music, somebody's going to like it.

I'm just excited that I get to put out the music I love versus music just for the sake of it.

I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn't me.

If one uses music that one does not really love, then one will not succeed in making it one's own.

I am very aware now that music is a business, but there is also a way to go about making music that is true to yourself as opposed to doing, you know, just going through the motions and making things that would just be commercially successful.

All I can do is focus on staying true to the style of music I write and sing because that is the only way it's going to come off as honest.

You're not going to hear me do a rap song, you're not going to hear me do a jazz song. We have to be true to our roots, do what we do, and try to do it a little better each time.

I learned a long time ago with guitars and amps or anything else, whatever band I'm in, I'm just going to sound like me anyway, so I just stay true to that.

My thing is related to who I am as a person. The clothes are an extension of me. The music is an extension of me. All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to whatever I'm feeling at the time, whatever direction I'm heading in. And hopefully, everyone follows.

When I'm writing music, I'm not playing a character. I'm not Alice Cooper or Gene Simmons or someone like that, who has acknowledged that they are writing music for a character.

Music's supposed to come from the heart. I felt like that if it ever got mechanical, I was going to back away from it.

The most important thing is that you honor that musical integrity, whether you make music that sounds like ABBA or you make music that sounds like Void.

I've heard some people say that I'm selling out, but I'm not. If I hadn't done 'Black Radio', and just kept on doing just piano trio stuff, I wouldn't be honest with myself; I'd be doing it to please other people. That would be selling out.

The whole process of music for me is something absolutely honest and really naked and bare, so I never forced myself to write in French.

I'm coming into places with some people who just want to hear what I did before, with some people who want to hear me with a band, but I am just at the moment sticking to my guns and saying, 'You know what? I want you just to hear this for a minute. I want it to be in the context of me and a guitar.'

The way that I've always gone about making music, the rule of thumb, has just been to make what I love.

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.

You get a lot of who you are as a musician across through the music you write. If you're writing your own music, then it's important to be really honest.

It's not my concern to make a commercial pop record. I want to make a record of music that I would listen to, that is lyrically rich and has songs that people can relate to - more along the Jakob Dylan route: people who create for the art of it and not necessarily the monetary rewards of it.

I don't dismiss the music that I was involved with, I don't think it was a joke, I don't think it was funny or a phase, I don't think it was just something I was doing back then, to me it was who I am. It connects all the way through. I don't distance myself from any of it.

You have to be who you are when you do music.

I would have quit before I went rock-n-roll. I know one way, and that's natural, and when I can't make it, I'll come home and stay. I believe in my music.

I didn't try to think what my audience wanted and then make the music accordingly. I made the music and hoped that as many people liked it as possible.