David Ruffin Quotes

As an artist, you want to have an experience. What you need to experience changes over the course of your life because your life changes.

I think that it's the job of the artist to be in transition and constantly learn more.

I want to grow as an artist, and I'm taking a step out. I want my music to mature.

An artist's life is supposed to lead toward his masterpiece, not away from it.

An artist conscientiously moves in a direction which for some good reason he takes, putting one work in front of the other with the hope he'll arrive before death overtakes him.

I suppose that anyone who does any kind of creative work some time in their life - especially as you grow into middle age! - you come to a time where you really question more and more frequently, whether you have anything else to offer. And at its worst, you feel utterly bereft of whatever creative force it takes to do that work.

I think everything happens for a reason and all of my choices have led me up to my solo album and made me stronger, not only as an artist but as a person. I want to do more the Black Eyed Peas albums and more of my own albums. I'm in this for the long run.

I am just beginning to understand what it is to paint. A painter should have two lives, one in which to learn, and one in which to practice his art.

I think that new artistic challenges help you grow both as a person, as an artist, and then they feed back into your other work, and tend to magnify it.

Music has changed a lot over the past few years so I believe it's necessary to adjust in order to make music the fans want to hear. If I need to release single after single instead of releasing the album, that is what I will do to reacquaint fans with who I am as an artist now.

What still concerns me the most is: am I on the right track, am I making progress, am I making mistakes in art?

I am curious about color as one would be visiting a new country, because I have never concentrated so closely on color expression. Up to now I have waited at the gates of the temple.

You will face boredom and frustration your entire career as artists. You will be very frustrated seeking a voice/style that collectors can connect with. Once you accomplish that voice/style people are clamoring for, you will become bored doing it.

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.

Artists don't need criticism, artists need love

I think it's possible to allow an artist to go beyond his borders and play.

It does take a long time and a lot of paint to become our own artist.

The album feels like a new era for me -- emotionally, lyrically, sonically. It feels fresh, it feels new. It's still me. It's still stuff that fans know and love but it's a new chapter 100 percent.

The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist.

Sometimes as an artist when things come easy to you, you look for other avenues that are more challenging to you and you try to walk those lanes.

I was 21, and I was like, "Man, am I really gonna start over and try this whole thing over again? Do I want to start over and be in a rock band again and try to act like a 17-year-old for as long as I can?" Because that was what I was doing with Simon Dawes band. I decided that if I was going to go on playing music, I was going to try and work on it. So I got into Leonard Cohen and Will Oldham, guys that really inspired me not only as songwriters but also through their music as people, and that's kind of what the shift was for me.

An artist must learn to be nourished by his passions and by his despairs.

For me the journey of making a film is a journey of discovery as to what that film is. I mean what I do is what other artists do, painters, novelists, people that make music, poets, sculptors, you name it. It's about starting out and working with the material and discovering through making, working with the material the artifact.

When you become an artist you're working away from home for so much time. You really see what the use of time means to you once you're an artist and you travel so much.

Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal.