Seamus Heaney Quotes

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.

You gotta make your own way. You gotta find a way. You gotta get it done. It's hard. It's tough. That's what I tell my students every day in class. I've been very fortunate. Some people might call me a hardhead, but I'm not going to let other people dictate to me who I should be or the stories I should tell. That doesn't register with me.

No one ever taught me how to shave; no one ever sat down to watch a Braves game with me. I paid for Yale myself, I lived by myself, I taught myself how to play the guitar. I did this all on my own.

If I read or listened to critics of our music, I'd have been discouraged a long time ago.

Whatever happens in my life, whether I stand up or I fall down, whatever the case, I'm going to use it in my art. Why? Because I'm an artist and I have to.

I am never driven. Every film I've made has been an assignment.

I think I veered towards filmmaking because there's more of a sense of control in it. You're not waiting to be picked. That said, in film school I acted in probably 6,000 student films because no other filmmakers knew anyone who wanted to act. It was all a big beautiful snake eating its tail, progressing along the way.

If life doesn't offer a game worth playing, then invent a new one.

I view art as an inspirational tool.

I've had to work by myself at combines before and forced myself to work out alone all the way back to high school. You have to be self-motivated.

I've been writing on my own. It's like Roger Miller used to say, every now and then, like a dog having puppies, you have to crawl under the house and do it yourself.

I will be making films, and I'm going to keep working, no matter what I have to do. And I don't plan to ever ask for permission from anybody.

I haven't accepted anyone telling me what is or isn't possible and have just kept moving along toward my goals.

No matter all of your credits and accomplishments - you can be forgotten in a trice. The idea that you have to go back and start again after considerable success can destroy you if you're not strong. I never lost track of who I am and what I can do, because I continually find things to do, but not everyone has that resource.

To be an artist is to doubt yourself and try harder.

I was always self-motivated.

The only reason I write is that I feel I have to. Being the creator of a project puts me in a much better position to do the things I want to do.

I'm always pushing myself.

When people doubt me, I want to prove them wrong.

One thing that was drummed into me when I was younger is that you have to make your own way in life, that you mustn't expect anyone else to support you.

At the end of the day, I come from a culture and an upbringing where you create your own path. There is no seat at the table for you? You create your own opportunity.

In the beginning, I was doing whatever came my way. But that's how life is. I am not sitting around calling a 'daddy' to make a movie for me.

You are never going to be driven anywhere worthwhile, but you sure as hell drive yourself to a lot of great places. It is up to you to drive yourself there.

Nobody's going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you're rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice. And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard. No matter what unjust, sad, sucky things befall you. Self-pity is a dead-end road. You make the choice to drive down it. It's up to you to decide to stay parked there or to turn around and drive out.

Studio Ghosts: When you're in the studio painting, there are a lot of people in there with you - your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics... and one by one if you're really painting, they walk out. And if you're really painting YOU walk out.