James McCartney Quotes

I don't want to compare myself to Picasso, but he had four or five periods in his life. Any good artist grows and changes and matures.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.

Every artist has to grow, and has to challenge themselves with a new form of expression.

Every record I do is a learning process for how I want to do the next one.

With every project I've ever done, I've always treated it like I'm still in school. Each time you try to go a little further, get a little deeper, feel a little more, sculpt it a little better.

I think that as an artist, the more that you can do to diversify, and kind of challenge yourself, the more you grow.

Hopefully with each thing that you do you're learning something, you're growing, and you're pushing yourself a little harder in some way or another. So I think you'd be in real trouble if each new thing that you create didn't feel like 'Oh, wow. I feel like I'm doing something a little different this time.'

I don't think you can talk about progress in art - movement, but not progress. You can speak of a point on a line for the purpose of locating things, but it's a horizontal line, not a vertical one.

I'm constantly trying to find something that's different from me, whereas some actors do the same thing, again and again. That's not for me.

'99.9%' is the end product of years and years of me going through multiple styles and interests.

A lot of the qualities in 'Killing and Dying' is sort of a response to work I'd done previously. I wanted to push myself in some different directions.

Just growing up and maturing has made my music so much better.

I think I'm always changing as a writer and trying new things.

I think if you're a creative person, then you're always kinda looking to move things along - 'Where else can I go? Where can I take this?' From painters to photographers - anything creative in the arts - if you're a true artist, I think you'll always look to do something else. 'Where else can I go with it?' Do you know what I mean?

If you are a good writer you use your life experience to do something different than someone who is 20-years-old can do. That is where you get your power. That is our power as a group. I am not trying to make the same music I made 10 years ago.

I always want to be growing in my craft. Any artist should - whether you paint, whether you do music or film - always grow and study.

I think the musical evolution I've gone through has come from all the work with the material.

I think I'm still trying to be experimental on everything I ever do, but it's not as obviously way-out and experimental as what we were.

The fun for me is to mix it all up. I would actually like to do something as far away from what I've just done, just for my own personal joy and growth, for what I want to do.

I don't deliberately go into comedy or go into indies, but I do deliberately try to keep changing tact, because I think that is the key to longevity in a career.

When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'

I wouldn't say I'm a very original thinker, but if I have a good experience with something, I'll want to take it further or adapt it in some way.

I think it's important that your first film be your worst film, that one's life trajectory should go up.

It's very important that young artists push boundaries, because sometimes you have this urge to do something - like the impulsive and dangerous urges I had as a child - and if you don't follow through with it you might miss out on a developmental experience.

I think all artists need to try to improve, or their work gets stale.