Etel Adnan Quotes

I'd rather be a poor singer/songwriter doing what I love than get rich from selling my soul.

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

I play a certain style. I'm not willing to compromise that part of me.

Sticking to our guns creatively is the only way we'll ever survive as a band and be happy.

I didn't draw Angelina to be famous; I did it simply because I've always had to earn a living.

There's certain artists that are meant to have certain paths and go the way of the corporate world. And then there are artists who are artists.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.

I wanted to be an actor, but only because I wanted to be everything, and that was the only way I could be a marine biologist as well.

I try to place what I creatively have to say above who I am.

I'm calculated in other things, but not in what I make.

I am all for high art but I owe it to myself to be clever about it and do commercial things too.

I don't like post-modernism. It's cynical, and takes no discipline - you just copy. It doesn't allow a film to be open to reality.

An artiste can only be happy when he is true to his art.

I really believe in not compromising your art. I feel like I've never compromised my art.

You look at the instrumentation, and you can't really argue that we set out with commercial aspirations. Banjos and things like that are not part of some formula for global success. But it felt right, and I think there's some value to purity of intention.

I grew up at the time of Social Realism in Poland, when everyone was supposed to be 'writing for the workers.' But I soon became allergic to this. I have never written for audiences. I like it if they appreciate my music. But I would never change my style for them.

I've always considered myself a serious guitar player, but I haven't been really worried about whether the public thought I was. That never was part of my record sales strategy.

The worst frame of mind to be in is what the fans like or what the fans want, because then you lose the authenticity of who you are as an artist and who you are as a person.

My films are as much for the people as they are for me. The reception affects me, but doesn't change me as a person. That's important.

Rozay is an artist himself so he understands the importance of being true to your work.

I don't see Hollywood as the big enemy, because this is where the money is, and not all of the companies are doing studio movies. I'm not tempted to sell out. If I'm going to become well known, I want it to be for something I'm proud of.

I think the worst thing in the world is for artists to produce themselves.

For the serious artist does not satisfy needs

The impulse to perfection cannot exist where the definition of perfection is the arbitrary decision of authority. That which is born in loneliness and from the heart cannot be defended against the judgment of a committee of sycophants. The volatile essences which make literature cannot survive the clichés of a long series of story conferences.

I am a communist and my painting is a communist painting. But if I were a shoemaker, Royalist or Communist or anything else, I would not necessarily hammer my shoes in any special way to show my politics.