Aaron McGruder Quotes

I think that one of the most useful applications of the Creator's Bill of Rights is that it clearly indicates for creators what rights they have at the outset.

I'm not here to put my music out on the Internet with no support and then say I got creative freedom. I've got creative freedom wherever I go: I don't create anything that I don't want to create. That's freedom. Since when does a company force you to make something that you don't want to make? If they do that, you leave.

You have laws to protect oil men, so why not artists?

I think if the copyright regime focuses on the people we are supposed to be helping, the artists and creators, and builds a system that gives them the freedom to choose and to protect and to be rewarded for their creativity, then we will have the right focus.

A lot of artists are much more concerned about how their work is used and how it's disseminated. That, to artists, is as important as the money, for some people.

I believe in creative control. No matter what anyone makes, they should have control over it.

I'm willing to give up a little control but not a lot. So I say I want the money, but when push comes to shove, I'm not sure I'll be able to compromise in order to make the big studio movie. Maybe something in between would be okay, like a low-budget studio film.

The biggest thing I have realized was that you have to choose your collaborators very carefully, and that not everybody can like you. The process of filmmaking is so difficult, there's no point in doing it unless you can do it the way you want.

Certainly, my many years working in the comics industry, creating products that I do not own, has made me rather fierce on the subject of giving up rights.

I was just finishing high school and entering college in 1988, when the Creator's Bill of Rights was drafted, and had already set my sights on building a career as a writer of comics. Discovering the Creator's Bill of Rights - in an issue of 'The Comics Journal,' if I'm not mistaken - I accepted it as gospel.

I said I would do all the films about the commercials, and the films about ball-bearings and Ford tractors and so on, if once a year they gave me money for a free film.

As you know, in America there's no rights for the artist, so whatever films I've made kind of belong to the studio, so if they want to remake it they can.

I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully.

I allowed artists to play for as long as they felt they could justifiably continue to create.

In America there's no rights for the artist, so whatever films I've made kind of belong to the studio.

You're just so excited that you have this record deal or this movie opportunity that you don't stand up for yourself and say, This is what I want to do.

For an artist, a good place to be is you have some kind of influence and power to get things done, but in your essence you remain a nomad or a soldier facing a difficulty to be overcome.

And I maintain good relationships with all the studios so I've never been bullied into any cut, frankly.

When you give an artist a canvas, you shouldn't tell him exactly how much paint to put on it, or exactly how sharp the images should be. You should let the artist get going.

We are going to finish this picture just the way I want it... because you cannot compromise an artist's vision.

It's hard for new artists to keep hold of what they own.

We have full creative control, we have a giant audience that loves what we do, and we can make whatever we want.

We need to create technologies - and a culture of respect, and an updated legal doctrine, too - that allow creative folks to make money from their own efforts.

There's lots of different ways of writing stuff and lots of different mindsets to have, but I think when it's your own creation, it's more pleasurable because you have total control.

I always say I want creative control. A lot of people don't think about that. And that's what every artist should think of - being creative and not just a puppet.