James Tenney Quotes

Writing is about a blank piece of paper and leaving out what’s not supposed to be there.

It is the limitation of means that determines style, gives rise to new forms and makes creativity possible.

To define is to limit.

Style is based on limitations.

There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that's a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them.

It's not what you play but what you leave out that makes the difference.

My style kinda comes from the music I listen to.

The unity in any painter's work arises from the fact that a person, brought to a desperate situation, will behave in a certain way... style.

The best artists know what to leave out.

In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.

I'm more creative the more rules I have - note values, tempos, dynamic markings. Somehow, I find that really inspiring.

A great melodic line is like a person's soul, and coming up with an original melody, it can be like you are illustrating the soul.

A good painting is a lot like a good joke: you need to know when to stop, too many 'punchlines and you will have gone too far.

I don't believe in making two songs similar. Every composition must have its own unique character.

Every picture one paints involves not painting others.

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

It is mediocrity which makes laws and sets mantraps and spring-guns in the realm of free song, saying thus far shalt thou go and no further.

I try not to repeat myself. It's the hardest thing in the world to do -- there are only so many notes one human being can master. .

Everybody who works under any system feels confined. It is a natural reaction. You are confined to a certain extent. You are confined if you work in a bank, if you paint. You are confined, in a sense, to your art - the enclosure of your mind. Everybody should break out.

I believe that creativity comes from compromise. If you could have everything you ever wanted, it doesn't always work.

Style is the outcome of constraint.

Art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.

Any constraint is part of the skeleton that you build the composition on - including your own incompetence.

I have found among my papers a sheet . . . in which I call architecture frozen music.