Archie Shepp Quotes

My biggest inspiration is to work with interesting filmmakers and learn from them in any way that I can.

That's what's great about the arts. Everything inspires you, and you get a chance to grow from watching other people and how they do their work.

I always love working with young actors, because there's always something to learn. It's always exciting to see the next generation and how they approach things and what's great about them and what's not so great about them.

I got a chance to work with Miles Davis, and that changed everything for me, 'cause Miles really encouraged all his musicians to reach beyond what they know, go into unknown territory and explore. It's made a difference to me and the decisions that I've made over the years about how to approach a project in this music.

There are so many designers that I love, and I'm so lucky that I get to work with so many of them and sometimes spend time with them.

It's fun and super exciting to see how other people work, how other people write music, and how other people put things together. To me, it's an endless learning process, and I love doing it because everybody works so completely differently.

I love working with young people and young filmmakers, and I love working on first films. I think it's cool. It's fun. I just take it as it comes.

Hopefully, I can stay around a lot of young musicians and feed off of them.

I think if you speak to any creative person, there's something so powerful - so intoxicating, if you will - about discovering another voice, another instrument, another way of looking at things, another way of perceiving things.

I would love to just keep working with really great directors who really inspire me.

To be able to work with my idols is incredible. You learn so much, and they're wonderful as people, too.

I'm lucky to be surrounded by incredibly talented people at Pixar, of course, and I learn a lot from them each and every day.

My longest collaborative working relationship is with Katie Grand, the editor-in-chief of 'Love' magazine. Katie's an inspiration and a sounding block. She's got such great taste.

All my idols have been in the studio with me, because they wanted to be there.

I've been fortunate to work with artists that are at the top of their respective genres. That allowed me to learn from them and their success.

I've been very lucky and fortunate to meet people that are very inspirational in their spirits, too, and not just as filmmakers - in their personal life. I mean, Steven Spielberg is very inspirational just to sit down and talk for an hour, like Ingmar Bergman was. They know so much about life and, you know, movie-making, so it's just wonderful to be around those people.

I love working with younger actors because they always come into the game full of energy and ideas that challenge me and keep me learning and stimulated.

I always learn something from every actor I've ever worked with. I always pick something from them.

I've gotten to work with some wonderful directors and people who have been great teachers to me.

There's an appreciation of the whole picture of life as opposed to just ambition and circumstance and all the stuff that happens in this business. You find yourself lucky enough to be working with somebody really talented who you know and who you trust.

I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else's talent.

My respect for artists is very high. I think to get the most out of them, you have to liberate them. I think part of liberating them is saying, 'Come up with something brilliant, new, and fresh. Stop thinking based on what has been beat into you by executives or publishers in terms of what's going to work and what's not. Don't react, just act.'

Some movies you fall a step behind, and some you stay in the same place, make the same choices. And then sometimes there are people who know more than you but show you, and that's the maximum you can hope for - doing that with someone who says, 'I like you for what you are, and I want you to be in my picture.'

When I give over to somebody's vision rather than have an idea of what I need to do, it takes me to places I wouldn't have got to by myself. I'm always attracted to a strong director.

I like messing around, and I like working with artists who I respect.