Carson McCullers Quotes

It takes people a little longer to get in to you when you have a distinct sound - especially if you're not force-feeding singles to pop radio. I try to be as much of an enigma as I can... because I want to be present and have people know what my message is, but then again, I want that mystery. There's a sensuality in the mystery that I think drives people to listen to my music.

I don't think you can guess what people will really like. You have to come at it from a more natural place and then kind of hope that your taste is shared by enough people to keep going.

The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.

I think it's really important to not talk about how you're going to release something until you've finished it. People are like, "What are we going to make? What are we going to do with it?" and it's just like, "I don't know, we're just making music. Then we'll talk." You can't always write something you're happy with; you can't force it.

Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?But am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I can STOP when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult.

I'm not super open to new people. I have a small group of people I trust. I'm very intuitive, so I'm good at feeling out how people are, like if they have bad intentions. Sometimes I'm very closed off, which annoys me, but I think it's for the best.

Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.

Mystery hovers over all things here below.

Most people don't realize that they feel something is wrong before they think something is wrong.

Jackson [Rathbone], who plays Jasper Cullen. He’s such a mysterious kid. I’ve been friends with him for a long time, and I still don’t get him, and I don’t think he gets himself! He’s really friendly, but there’s this mystery about him and he’s talented in so many ways. It’s too much talent for one person. He reminds me of a vampire.

Sometimes you pick up on the myth and it's just an accident. I think it comes naturally out of people, and some people are aware of it.

People pay more attention when they think you’re up to something.

She didn't have words for what Levi was. He was a cave painting. He was The Red Ballon. She lifted her heels and pulled him forward until his face was so close, she could look at only one of his eyes at a time. "You're magic," she said.

I think that a lot of times, I trust people I shouldn't, and it turns out right, and it makes me feel a little better about it.

Decisions, particularly important ones, have always made me sleepy, perhaps because I know that I will have to make them by instinct, and thinking things out is only what other people tell me I should do.

What is Mona Lisa thinking? Nothing, of course. Her blankness is her menace and our fear. [...] Walter Pater is to call her a 'vampire,' coasting through history on her secret tasks.

There's a lot of people that don't understand liberalism, there are a lot of people that I think, by definition, still need to be informed and educated that it isn't the soft, loving, compassionate stuff that it's portrayed to be. Trump speaks for himself. Who Trump is and what he's doing is not a mystery to anybody. It's the exact opposite of a mystery. It's in your face.

It's human nature to want to think the best of others, but if you listen carefully, people will always tell you who they are.

I think following my instinct has proven to lead me in the right direction, and it's hard to hear sometimes, because it's a noisy world and there's a lot of people talking to you.

I think subconsciously or selfishly I knew that I was supposed to do something. It was like a thumping or a throbbing saying, "Yes, this what you've been waiting for." But you're a little dim to those spiritual thoughts when you're dumb like me. So I did have to get a little bit of a kick. I played it for a bunch of people and I think their reactions were warm and deep enough that they gave me the courage to get [the record] out there.

I dont like doing whats expected. Ive always done best when Ive listened to my instincts rather than following convention or doing what other people think I should do.

Just do what you want, I don't think you should ever... pointers and tips from people is great, and it's good and I don't think you should ever shun down advice, but if you feel something's wrong, then you don't do it. And that's what I'd say.

I think we've always, as a species, been fascinated with stuff that we don't understand. Anytime someone can shed light on that, whether it's legit or just somebody's fantasy of what that stuff is, I think people take notice.

I think that's one of the reasons people love The X-Files, because most people do believe that there's something else going on that we don't know, because life is just too bizarre to be the way it is.

My favorite actors are actors who are enigmatic and mysterious and never make the obvious choice in terms of the projects they do or who they work with or their craft. But I think that the less I know about an actor, the more chance I have of allowing their own persona to kind of slip away so I can get completely lost in the character they're playing, and the more that people think they know about your personal life, the more difficult it becomes to preserve that.