Salman Rushdie Quotes

I think I come from a time when all the artists I grew up with and I loved always used to try and push the boundaries, and there doesn't seem so much of that, really.

It was actually the enormous risks I took with my pictures, skating right up to the edge of non-acceptance, that paid off so handsomely.

I want to change things with everything I do, not for the sake of changing things, but for the sake of taking greater and greater risks, or how minimalist I might be able to be, or how I can involve elements or ingredients in music videos that are not musical, for instance.

People sometimes get a little extra criticism when they try something that they don't normally do, but I think that's just a natural thing for artists. It's like, 'Okay, I did that, and now I want to try this.'

When I'm at my best, I'm trying to destabilize myself and figure out new ways of approaching art as a provocation. I think I am at my best when I push myself into a place where I don't have all the answers.

The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.

That's the joy of art - it should be dangerous and challenging but it's just art - it's safe.

I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.

Yes, every venture is always filled with apprehensions. But if we were to conduct ourselves continuously on that aspect, then we would lose the most important reason to be in this profession: to challenge the art of and be part of what is commonly known as our creative instincts.

Californian artists are kind of willing to push the limits a little bit further just because that's kind of our mentality in that state.

Every day, I'm trying to push the boundaries creatively, and sometimes it does push the boundary too far, and that's what I had to learn.

You want, as an artist, to be pushing yourself to do what you haven't done before.

We live in a world where art is always looked upon as the perfect medium. We live in a society where we can alter our body parts, we can act in the most perfect or right way. A lot of that is dangerous because, especially in the world of art, the chief enemy of creativity is being safe. If you're safe, you can't fall and hurt yourself. The older you are, the further down the crash is going to be. But if it works out, the higher the high.

I think nearly every artist continually wants to reach the edge of nothingness - the point where you can’t go any further.

Each time I undertake to paint a picture I have a sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet. It is only later that I begin to estimate more exactly the the effect of my work.

Part of the fun is finding out how elastic that box is and, you know, test the limits of what TV shows can do or what a music video can do.

The plan was just to make great art, and working with Donald Glover, who is such a renaissance man, we've been working together for ten years, and he is always pushing the envelope in a way - like, whenever we work together, I have no idea what it is going to turn out to be.

Sometimes you have to take the risk that somebody will consider what you're making is noise, but if you don't try it, then nothing will move forward. I'd rather people hate something than just go 'meh.'

The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.

As an actor and director, you have to take risks, even though I don't like saying that word. You can make a mistake.

I love performing. I love being a provocateur. I love putting myself in situations that are uncomfortable and that I have to get out of.

There's a thin line between interesting music and self-indulgence. We crossed it on the Passengers record.

I'm not belittling the art world. Not at all. I take it quite seriously, actually. But the logic of art is a vanguard logic that pressures art to incorporate the quotient of risk.

On the ridge where the great artist moves forward, every step is an adventure, an extreme risk. In that risk, however, and only there, lays the freedom of Art.

What keeps me awake at the wheel is the thrill of trying something completely new with each book. I’m not a risk-taker in life, generally speaking, but as a writer I definitely choose the fast car, the impossible rock face, the free fall.