James Ransone Quotes

I really think that if there's any one enemy to human creativity, especially creative writing, it's self-consciousness.

I love Lady Gaga. She's not afraid to take risks and be herself.

If you are worried about what others might think and about how your position in the group might be jeopardized, then you will never really create anything.

I do worry that it's impossible to write something original, that there's nothing that a human hasn't already thought of. But I can put it out of my mind and get on with what I'm doing.

If I think about the writers I love or might be influenced by, I can't write at all, so I pretend there aren't any.

Preaching is the most original thing I've ever done. There's nothing familiar about it. You have to be brave.

Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom.

I wish I had less fear about creating my own parts.

Go for broke with what you believe and what you think is funny and what you're good at.

I wanna be one of those special guys. Jimi Hendrix wasn't afraid of who he was. That's the part I emulate.

Whenever I get stuck on something, I'm like, 'What would I do if I wasn't afraid? What would I write if I wasn't afraid? What would I say in this situation if I wasn't afraid?'

I write my own lyrics; I can incorporate my own ideas. And yes, apparently, people think it's cool. That's pretty awesome.

You can't ever create defensively. You just have to create the next thing that really speaks to you.

I was kind of nervous to put 'Learning' out: it's a lot different. That's who I am. I'm going to push the boundaries.

I am so blessed to do what I love to do, but becoming a solo artist terrified me!

If you worry about how good the art is, you're never going to make your own art.

Don't let the fear of not pleasing someone stop you from being creative.

Each time I sit down and write a play I try to dismiss from my mind as much as I possibly can the implications of what I've done before, what I'm going to do, what other people think about my work, the failure or success of the previous play. I'm stuck with a new reality that I've got to create.

The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

When you make a record, your own record, and you don't even recognize it yourself, it's hard to think if anybody else is going to recognize.

There’s a great expression in Twelve Step programs: Act as if. Act as if you’re a writer. Sit down and begin. Act as if you might just create something beautiful, and by beautiful I mean something authentic and universal. Don’t wait for anybody to tell you it’s okay. Take that shimmer and show us our humanity. That’s your job.

You try to be as original as you can be without thinking about statistics. You just go from the soul and from the heart.

We all get intimidated by showing ourselves, for whatever reason, we think, If I really show who I am, and someone goes [pfftt] then it's gonna crush me. Well, it's not gonna crush me. It doesn't crush you if somebody does that- somebody will do that. Many times. And once you accept that that's not why you're doing it, you're doing it because that's your form of expression.

A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.

If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.