Marina and the Diamonds Quotes

I think I've been a bit misunderstood; the first record was more timid than I wanted it to be. I don't like getting pinned down by sex or how I sound like because it's not who I am or what I want to be.

At first you're doing it for yourself, it's about what sounds good to you. It's about expressing yourself. Then you get comfortable as an artist and you find yourself and people get familiar.

I was given an incredible gift growing up in the Chelsea, a space where it is completely fine to be yourself - you just had to figure out what that was. You didn't have to figure that out in the face of opposition at every turn.

My personal life, my musical life, my life as an artist - almost everything has pointed all these little arrows that make up which way I go as a person and what I feel comfortable as my identity.

An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must not feel under any constraint.

I'm still the same artist; it's just different sides of me. I'm learning to be a little bit more confident in myself and I think that's something that all of us girls struggle with. It's really about defining your confidence.

K. Dot was a kid who was trying to find himself in music, finding trends, um, bending towards - ready to bend towards what the industry was telling me to do and after you mature at a certain time in your life, you come into your own...your own niche, your own personality, not only as an artist but as a person.

I used to have to downplay my sexuality because I wanted to be taken so seriously as a thespian and as an artist and as an actor, so I'd play crack heads and down trotting women and disguise myself, and I think as I've gotten older, I become more comfortable with who I really am and all parts of me knowing that my physical self doesn't diminish me in any way or my talent.

All you can do as an artist is do what you think is an extension of you. You put down on paper ... who you are. That's what being an artist is all about. And when it gets done, you don't look back at it and say, Oh, I could have done that better.

You are the artist and the art.

I feel like I spent so much time trying to understand my identity and my identity as an artist. But when all is said and done, at this age, I feel the most like I felt when I was 11. And all those talents I had when I was 11 and 12 - I'm letting them sort of happen again. I can't speak for men, but for women - we go back to a kind of pre-adolescent state when we were superfree and supercool.

Black music has increased my enjoyment of what I do. It has increased my range, my ability to reach into myself and accept myself.

He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise.

My style is constantly evolving. Style has been something that I think has been the hardest thing for me to come to terms with.

I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.

Identity for me is something that has to be played with and explored, and not become complacent about or uninterested in.

I feel I'm all over my movies. I know my movies are all over me.

I feel, as an artist, I should be able to express who I am and the things I come from, and the places I want to also be.

I'm doing things that are more artistic again, more close to the material that I love. I don't disparage those things that I did. They're just not as much reflective of who I am.

My music is really about people connecting with their identities, even if they aren't Jewish.

I don't like to be labeled, to be anything. I've made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it's counter-productive.

My writing was liberated once I abandoned acting.

Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It's taken some time, but now I feel I've truly paid my dues. I guess I'm at a point now where I'm more comfortable in my own skin.

The great thing about being a writer is that you are always recreating yourself.

The whole point in developing your own style is to find your own voice.