George Lois Quotes

My only career strategy is to just not do anything that I have to be completely ashamed of afterwards! Whether it's TV or movies, I feel lucky to be working.

I've never met a client who wants to be the worst.

As a freelance artist, you have to please somebody instead of just making music. But when the employer trusts and leans on you to determine what is right for a scene or feeling, that's ideal.

We have so little control as actors, but there are ways you can maintain your integrity. I have to say I've never compromised myself in this career once. I've never done something I didn't believe in.

You can have integrity with your art, but worrying about integrity doesn't pay the bills.

On everything I do I'm always taking someone's money, whether it's a movie studio or a record label. Somebody's paying for it, and I'm always respectful of that. But I'm never going to compromise.

A scrupulous man will never produce a great novel.

Well, there's a morality in that you want your work to be good, I suppose.

I've been lucky enough to work with some great directors, and I don't want to throw that away by doing one big horrible big budget film.

When you make a movie outside the system and it's successful critically or a moderate financial success, you usually have to go back into the system and make a big hit.

I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.

Everybody, even me, sometimes had to compromise on something, doing things we know to be wrong, and this happens doing whatever job in the world. But a singer must have the courage of saying no.

I always say to young people when they ask me how I work, I always say to them, the only time you've ever going to do something good is if you have a good client. And by good I mean all kinds of things.

I've never worked for a show or was on a show where I didn't have a lot of control creatively, but then again, I haven't worked on a lot of shows.

If you were to hold me to a standard of, 'What are you doing, singing about a scratch-off ticket at your level of success?' then my music's gonna be ridiculous.

Because over and over again, the times that I've done really good things is because I've had a wonderful client of some kind, and a lot of it depended on me to induce them to be creative.

Film-makers should remain true to their principles and never compromise, there is a real revival in the British film industry but there is a danger that we will become colonial servants of Hollywood. We need to maintain our own integrity.

What happens with artists, or people who start off doing things for the right reasons, is that you slowly start to paint yourself into a corner by doing what people outside of the creative world are asking you to do, and I think that's antithetical to being an artist.

I never wanted to be one of those desperate actors, just waiting for their next gig, who might have to take something that they didn't want to do to pay the rent.

The second you feel a political imperative, it destroys your art.

I tell people all the time that producers, writers, and directors really don't know what they want until it walks into the room - you have to show them what they want. Everyone is rooting for you when you walk into the room. Everyone wants you to be good because it means their day is over!

I'm not exactly in a position where I get to be super-picky about the roles I get. But I would also never want to be a part of something that I think is poor in taste or doesn't align with what I believe in.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, 'No, I'm just going to write what I feel I should write.'

I will never permit myself to give in to American taste and lower the standards of art.

Being asked to carry a major show with the restrictions that are thrown on you is very limiting. I'd rather hit it hard, do it right, and walk away.