John Zorn Quotes

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

If what you do in life is perform to open up eyes and minds, to make people laugh, then it better damn well be new! It shouldn't be just a repetitious 'Hey, I'm still here!'

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.

Of course creativity is a mystery. We don't know what drives it or what constitutes it. It's one of those things, like genius, you know it when you see it but it's impossible to define.

Every film has to be the next something else; originality isn't celebrated because you can't market it.

It's hard to make something feel like it needs to exist.

I'm hoping to make a new thing for the world that remains in the mind like a new species of living thing.

I originated my own cliches, but I'm finding that's not working for me anymore.

It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.

A masterpiece... may be unwelcome but it is never dull.

What makes a specific quality or quantity of innovation retain its intense newness over the years?

Unless a piece really said something, I had no interest in it. I have got to know that I have served some purpose here.

Nobody's interested in something that could've been done before.

I think when you're being creative, you still attach it to reality somehow.

I always imagine, and try to be on the lookout, for new things, for references that can inspire me creatively so I can showcase things that people haven't done before or that are new.

The thing about covers that's relatively important to remember is that it doesn't matter how good an artist you are: if you don't have good ideas, the covers don't stand out.

I've learned that if you don't have anyone opposing your work, if you don't have anyone thinking, 'Man, that should be me. I could do that. I should have thought of that, or they must have teams of people doing it for them,' your work simply isn't reaching enough people to be relevant.

I feel that one thing that a businessman can learn is do not follow a path that has already been successful. You will never be a path-breaker then.

I really want to be creative. I want to innovate. I want to be innovative, and I want to do things that are different.

Just knowing you're putting something out there that could take on a greater life - that's our sweet spot. That's what we try to do.

Any film that can entertain and has a message and cannot be slotted into any genre is unique.

There's something exceptional about watching a video and simultaneously thinking 'That was genius!' and 'I could have done that!'

Telling people how to be creative is easy - being creative is difficult.

Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity.

Sometimes I say, If I had seen some masterpieces, maybe I wouldn't have dared start. I started very - not innocent, but naïve in a way.