Michelangelo Antonioni Quotes

Art does not come from thinking but from responding.

I have no 'dream role.' It just comes to me; it's very intuitive, and I say, 'OK, I have to do this now.' It's not logical; just, 'I have to jump into this very strange character,' or something like that. I can't even explain it.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

Whatever I hear in my head is what I play.

Sometimes, I knew generally what I was going to do, but I've never written anything down. Call it a sixth sense: the lines just come.

You can't plan for a seizure of feeling, and for this reason I put everything else aside when I'm inspired.

People go, 'What do you want to do?' What do you want to do? What are you feeling? Going into a shoot not fully knowing what I want to do—that excitement, that thing that happens, is just so powerful and makes such great pictures.

I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.

I'm dependent on writing for a living, so really it's to my advantage to understand how the creative process works. One of the problems is, when you start to do that, in effect you're going to have to step off the edge of science and rationality.

No, no, the songs write themselves, almost.

I consider creativity to be a more non-rational, subconscious thing. You have a relationship to your creativity - you can feed it with content, with some rational prodding and sleep and things like that, but the mechanisms by which your creativity work are largely unknown.

I don't pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

Very often, writing a song is a process that happens to me rather than one that I instigate. I feel a song coming on and, like a sneeze; I wait for it until it comes.

I don't outline; I listen to a kind of whisper inside the material.

The great songs just come out. If it comes quick, just leave it that way.

I write and draw from the gut. I often don't know what my stories are about until they're done.

Directing is like meeting a woman. You don't know her, but something strikes you, and then you just have to go into it.

I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help.

I don't like to over-intellectualize scenes that are working. I tend to think when you do that you may lose it.

I don't make judgments about my own work, and I don't analyze it; I just let it happen. That applies to everything I've done.

I don't know what aids creativity. All I know is that it feels natural to hold a guitar in my hands and sing.

My music is born from instinct. I react to situations a script may provide while creating a song.

I don't take very calculated decisions. I just follow my heart.

I don't really dissect too much when ideas come - they just kind of pop into my head; I just take them and run.