Martin Filler Quotes

The more I compose, the more I know that I don't know it all. I think it's a good way to start. If you think you know it all, the work becomes a repetition of what you've already done. I try to make sure that I don't repeat my music.

If you want to be an artist in the long run, it isn't necessarily a good axiom to repeat formulas over and over until they're used up.

If people respect us as artists, they know we'll give them something different every time; they know we're pushing ourselves.

All we try and do is make the best films we can. If you do that then hopefully the audiences will come, and they have. Everything else is gravy.

I always try to be alert to the potential for repetition, for a decaying orbit with regard to my use of technique, etc.

I try to physically and mentally immerse myself in whatever it is I am doing. That is good for me as an artist. I am always looking for that part that I have never done before, which makes it all the more difficult, because people want to hire you for what they've already seen you do.

The more you create, the more ambitious you become with your projects. Short films were a direct result of over 200 web series sketches and vlogs. After you create enough 2-minute videos, you start to wonder what else there is. Deadlines and discipline and quantity with a focus on quality have always been what keeps me going.

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

It's a great challenge and a wonderful journey how to figure out how to be an artist and to carve my way.

So many cartoonists draw the same year after year. When they find a style, they stick with it. They don't mess with innovation, and they become boring.

My greatest desire as an actor is to keep people guessing and not do anything close to what I did last time.

I'm reluctant to get involved in science fiction, because I feel like I've done it and done it well, so unless something comes along that I feel has the potential to do something even more interesting, it seems a shame to sort of re-live something in half-measures.

There can be nothing more humiliating for a writer of fiction to have to do than restate a case that has already been made.

One of the things that I've been trying to do with my characters, one of the things that does lead to me turning things down, is I don't really want to repeat myself.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

We've done very different Yes albums - 11 bars, 13. I think we had something that had 17/4 in it. It's just like anything - the more you do it, the more you have to do it.

One of my life philosophies is that you have a choice to make when you're doing something creative. You can be cheesy... or you can be lame.

I think when people make a record with a goal in mind - like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature - that gets in the way of writing great songs.

I'm all for trying anything once; otherwise, you end up like David Guetta - reproducing the same formula over and over.

I know someone might look at a creative person's job and think it's pretty fun. It is. It's the best thing in the world, but it's also extremely challenging to carve out your own completely unique path and not following a default path that someone else has already paved.

One thing that feels very important to me as an artist is to continually challenge myself and push myself to do all kinds of different things.

I thought 'Gutterflower' was a really good record, but the album before that got so big that everyone expected us to go through that again.

I never limit myself when it comes to telling stories; I think people can see that in my body of work. It's just about, 'What's a great story? Is it unique? Is it a challenge?'

I want to make every film different from my previous one.

I think one of the studio's characteristics is to embrace wholeheartedly what we feel is interesting; what we perceive to be worthwhile, cool, or beautiful; and to place these ideals at the foundation of the games we make.