Michael Haneke Quotes

I want people to understand me as a person with views, not just performing songs.

Whenever I play something, everybody just thinks that's who I am.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

I think a lot of artists get confused when people like their music; they think that means people know and like them. I'm sure there's an element of truth to that, but to me, the music I make is what I'm most proud of. I prefer to focus on that and for people to focus on the music, too.

I did get a reputation for being choosy and not very easy to be approached, and none of that is true. It is not that I am not approachable, it is just that I am trying to find myself and establish who I am as an artist.

A lot of people thought I got famous as a studio artist, then decided to cash in on it. But it actually was just a matter of survival for many years, and I felt it was really important for me to be able to say whatever I wanted with my street art and fine art.

I don't really understand what the public perception of me is. I think public perception and reality are two wholly different things.

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

Most people have the wrong idea about me because I've been very private.

It's funny: people who meet me say, 'I thought you'd be different.' But I'm still the same guy.

I was more than just a moody artist.

I just think that the whole diva thing is a misrepresentation of who I am.

I don't know why people think I'm a Goth - that's a misconception.

For the life of me, I'll never understand how you can be an artist but not want people to understand who you are as a person.

I'm not the type of woman who shows off my body; I'm a vocalist and I'm a writer and I think people see that more so than they see anything else. That's just who I am.

I'm perceived to be this solitary character, but nothing could be further from the truth.

I'm not a down-in-the-dumps person. I think some people assume that I am because of the music I write.

I think there's a misconception that I eat everything. The one or two bites that you see me take, that's it.

If anything can be art, then anyone can be an artist.

I'm not a fitness model; I'm just a singer. If people focus on that, that's what I care about.

Sometimes it feels like my story overshadows my music.

I know that I'm often perceived as this odd guy who's a bit out there, and I've probably, once in a while, reinforced that image, but I'm really not that person, and, in a way, I want even less so to be seen like that.

That's important for artists to remember: some people would like to be spokespeople, but others would like their art to speak.

I'd like to think that maybe the average person is rational, and they realise that I'm not this crazy monster that, at times, I've been perceived to be.

To be an artist that is fully original, it doesn't exist.