Felix Mendelssohn Quotes

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.

The individual - man as a man, man as a brain, if you like - interests me more than what he makes because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves.

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

I think that all my albums are different enough where I don't feel like I did this the last time.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?

Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it's about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you'll never do it this way twice. I've studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.

I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.

The only way you can get good, unless you're a genius, is to copy. That's the best thing. Just steal.

To me, searching for perfection isn't anywhere near as interesting as trying to find your own voice.

I never want to repeat myself. I can't imagine anything else as upsetting as realizing I'm redoing something I did before. For some reason, when it comes to film, I'm very good at not repeating myself. Even though in the rest of my life, I'm constantly repeating my mistakes.

You borrow from the greats, and you make your own path without losing the core of who you are.

I care about being creative and expressing myself.

The part of the process that's exciting to me is feeling like I'm in a place I've never been before, in every way. Without that, I don't know if I'd be a writer.

The only intention I've ever had creatively, as a musician, is to be as different from myself as possible.

I do music that makes me happy by challenging myself to go the extra mile and not do what everyone else is doing.

They[ Lana and Andy Wachowski]are true artists. They really are trying to say something and trying to create something original, and there aren't that many people who do that.

Everybody's creative. We create our songs and our paintings, our families and our children. Every one of us is on the cutting edge of the future.

I knew what I didn't want to do- that's always my starting point. The starting point is always that I don't want to repeat myself. Or I try my best not to, with varying degrees of success.

Genius is personal, decided by fate, but it expresses itself by means of system. There is no work of art without system.

Do whatever you do intensely. The artist is the man who leaves the crowd and goes pioneering. With him there is an idea which is his life.

As an aspiring artist, you should strive for originality of vision. Have something to say and a fresh way of saying it. No story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it’s not the work of the imagination.

Originality is only variation.