David Knopfler Quotes

If I only acted, I feel like I wouldn't have enough creative expression over my own sensibility, and also if I only acted, the notion of surrendering my fate and future to other people is deeply unsettling to me and it would make me uncomfortable.

I don't control anything I create.

I'm going to continue doing what I want to do. And if it means I want to go and make a big movie, if it has something to say, I will want to make it. I don't want to spend my life wasting my time. If it's a big movie, I want to do it. If it's a small movie, I want to do it.

I knew when I got into this business I couldn't have it both ways: I could live the playboy lifestyle, which is not a bad thing to do, or have a traditional family life, which is how I grew up. And that was more important to me.

My music - that's the one area I won't let myself be pushed around. But in other parts of my life, I'm a confused mess.

I don't want to spend my life in my 40s feeling bad about being in my 40s, and then all of a sudden I'm 50, and I will have missed a whole decade!

I just want to be at peace with myself, personally and professionally. I want to lead my life the way I want to without having to worry about what the other person may be thinking. Professionally again, I would like to be able to just do films that I want to without having to explain my reasons to my friends, family and fans.

The only reason I write is that I feel I have to. Being the creator of a project puts me in a much better position to do the things I want to do.

I definitely prefer to write under my own volition and see what happens.

After I got back my career and my artistic freedom in 1982, my golden rule is the music must never suffer.

I don't like being told what to do, and I don't need to be told what my record should sound like.

It's my only freedom, music, and I'm not going to give it up to anyone else.

It is none of anyone's business how I make my films or my creative partnerships.

The choice is yours: Do you want to exist, or do you want to live?

I get to do my own thing with music. I get to write the songs and sing the songs. As an actor, you have to do what someone else tells you to do and say someone else's words. And you're limited by the way you look and music is just more rewarding creatively for me.

I seem to have been possessed by a mind of my own and I did not merely want to be a pop product, but I wanted to be an artist which was always my ambition.

I always say I want creative control. A lot of people don't think about that. And that's what every artist should think of - being creative and not just a puppet.

The reason I decided to become a solo artist in the first place was because I always felt that the results that I got from working as a team where everyone had equal say... ended up with compromised, watered-down results.

I always felt like an outsider of the industry, and now I feel quite comfortable as an independent artist.

I have passed on on a lot of roles. I purely and simply do what I like.

And what makes Bob Dylan stories interesting is that the only person who can decide their outcome is Bob Dylan, so you never know how they're going to go.

'Drawn & Quarterly' has always given me complete editorial control over my books and comics, so any decision about what to include or exclude from the book was my own.

It wasn't slung together by a producer and a publisher. We decided we were going to take hold of our music and let it evolve organically.

I've always felt like there was less creative space on sets with guardians. I just felt independent at a young age.

We are so grateful we are given the chance and the freedom to do what we want, what we want to create, what's on our mind, and that's honestly what we asked for in the beginning of our career.