Sufjan Stevens Quotes

To keep creating something with this type of music, you have to take it out of the box.

Cage's Music of Changes was a further indication that the arts in general were beginning to consciously deal with the 'given' material and, to varying degrees, liberating them from the inherited, functional concepts of control.

I've lost so many gigs composing commercial or television music because I can't repress my inclination to work against conventions.

I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

After 'Mosaic,' I think a lot of people didn't know what my next record was going to be. And that's what I love. I just love doing music because I'm not going to follow the patterns and formulas of Music Row.

I wanted to try a different way of making music. That's what made me try different things with my voice.

People always want to talk about who I was, but I've always been singing, always been experimenting with pop music.

I love all Yes music and love to play it live, but I'm most interested in making new music with Yes.

I've seen and learned enough to keep my music fresh and spread out.

In terms of music, I can try anything I want, even something that doesn't work at all, because I'm not putting my career in jeopardy.

I can't re-define music every week!

I've never played it safe on my own music.

Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

A lot of people told me that I'm committing musical suicide with my sound.

I think Lady Gaga is great and is changing pop music and bringing back a certain rock 'n' roll spirit, swagger to the game.

I've had a lot of folks tell me that my songs weren't quite country because they didn't really sound like anybody that had come along and done it before me. I felt a little out of place for a while.

All the big artists I talk to say that they are trapped in a formula and they are looking for the music of tomorrow.

I tried to take heavy metal... and balled it up and chopped it in half and really tried to create a new form of energy. I really tried to re-shape extreme music as I see it through my eyes.

I started to work up in my old bedroom, playing, writing songs, and it somehow came to me that I could introduce soul music. Nobody seemed to be doing that.

If a musician dares to get out of the box he's been put in, people get confused. They want people where they can find them! I am fortunate in some respects as I've always been known as someone who 'moves around' and tries different things. But generally, we are supposed to stay where we're put.

Hip hop is doing the new rock thing; there are no rules. They can do anything, really. And that's inspiring.

So dance music is now pop music. So now, as a dance producer, what do I have to do? So I'm starting to do alien music, because pop is not pop anymore; we need to go alien to be independent.

Just the type of music that was around at the same time as I was writing. Some of it was wicked, definitely. But there was just one direction which I thought could be pushed that no one was pushing.

You have got to make new music, that is the way that I look at it anyway.

I feel that when you care about your music, taking risks is something you should do to keep things exciting.