Aleister Crowley Quotes

The notion of making money by popular work, and then retiring to do good work, is the most familiar of all the devil's traps for artists.

The studio is spending great amounts of money, and they want some insurance they will get money back. They go for the middle of the road, broad in appeal. It's restrictive. It's a constant struggle, but if you give in, you're just making cottage cheese, and that's the end of it.

The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money.

If you go to Hollywood, you've already sold out.

With Lady Antebellum, there's always pressure. It's hard for commerce not to rear its ugly head when you're making decisions.

Money writes books, money sells them. Give me not righteousness, O Lord, give me money, only money.

Fortunately, I'm able to make a living from comics, so I'm privileged enough to be quite choosy, though most cartoonists can't afford to be. It's really an uncomfortable situation, since I'm not an illustrator, though I do get calls from morally indefensible businesses offering me money to decorate their ambitions. It's extremely rare, almost unheard of, in fact, that I am asked to do a comic strip. Do writers get calls to pen Toyota advertisements? Do composers get asked to write chamber pieces about exercise machines?

To those supporters who were told that I abandoned them, that is untrue. I abandoned greed, corruption, and compromise, never you, and never the artistic gifts and abilities that sustained me.

Success and money can really be quite blinding.

Something happens to people around fame and power and money - it can bring out the worst and best in people; it's a monster you have to tame.

I think more money can be very detrimental to movies and TV because things get solved economically rather than creatively, and that's never a good solution.

The FSG story starts to lose its fairy-tale aura when filthy lucre invades the sacred enclosure, as it did ubiquitously in the every-man-for-himself Reagan era.

As an artist, you want to make good stories and create good art; as a businessman, you want to make money and make sure the investors are happy. The two will always clash, unfortunately.

I've never turned over a fig leaf yet that didn't have a price tag on the other side.

Many musicians will say they don't care about the money yet they must commit themselves to appear at given times and places, and to produce what sells, whether they believe in it or not. It depends on contracts.

I don't want to be in somebody else's movie, and then they make all the money. I've gotten offers to do the movies, but I won't sell myself short and be in somebody else's movie, like 'Boyz N the Hood.' I don't think I woulda done that.

There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial.

They shouldn’t, sir. You sold your souls and you’re going to continue selling them. You can be very moral and righteous in asking me that question sir, but there is not one of you in this room that’s going to turn down any of our money. You’re going to take it. I can only offer it…. We want to put our materials on the bodies of your athletes and the best way to do it is to buy your schools or buy your coach.

The man who damns money has obtained it dishonestly: the man who respects it has earned it.

When you make something that you're really proud of, and it doesn't do well, you can live with it. The hard part is when you make something that you have to compromise on and it doesn't do well.

Football is now all about money. There are problems with the values within the game. This is sad because football is the most beautiful game. We can play it in the street. We can play it everywhere.

People are not able to just make music anymore; we have to do things that don't necessarily make the art any better. But that's just how it is.

It's really weird how the rock world is quickly becoming like the jazz world. How if you do OK, or get a tiny bit of success, that's considered a sellout, whether you did anything different or not.

Obviously, I would like to play to bigger audiences and have a bit more success, but not if I have to commercialize.

The more money in the game, the more players will try anything to win.