Woody Allen Quotes

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

Unfortunately, you're helpless when people interpret your work wrongly. There are simply people who can't or won't understand or accept what you're trying to do. When you take the risk of expressing yourself in public, you have to open yourself to that possibility.

When that happens - when risk is taken and the filmmakers dive into the subject matter without a parachute - very often what you get it something with those qualities that make it age well with the public.

It's dangerous to think too much about how a film will be received. Filmmaking is not a popularity contest. Some would disagree.

My theory is, independent movies only work if you're willing to push the material and do something different.

What is good for you creatively is usually bad commercially. You thrive financially by sticking to a series and not fiddling about too much. You do yourself harm by moving away from the series and the genre. By trying things not based in that particular mode of writing, you will just lose readers.

I think that if you've got 5 million people that enjoy drama and invest in characters, you must take the time to not worry about your job and getting sacked and just go for it and hit it again.

My idea of artistry has always been 'try everything until you find out what works.'

I tend to make bolder and more interesting choices after I've done theatre.

There are some films that you know will do well. Then there are others which have good stories that ought to be told. But because they are slightly risky, not everybody is willing to take that up. But I think it is important to take risks because at the end of the day, you want to explore new genres and new characters.

I think comics do need permission to fail. I think comics do need permission to go up and try stuff.

I thought I would be a visual artist when I was growing up, so I'm always up for a bit of experimentation.

In art, you CAN crash your plane and walk away from it

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.

To me art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risk.

I call it 'new forms'. When you're starting out, they ask you to do four or five minute sets, but once you're a headliner, you do like 90 minutes. I try to think of different things to divvy up the show, like doing drawings, playing music... I gotta carry the show, that's the problem.

I wonder if real art comes when you build the thing that they don't have a prize for yet.

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

There's a point where you find yourself tiptoeing as an artist, and then you know that you're in the wrong place.

I don't feel any pressure at all because I don't care. That's an occupational hazard... but if you're doing anything of any worth, and not doing something that's safe and anodyne and trying to be populist and a national treasure, then you've got to assume that as many people hate what you do - and you - as like what you do and like you.

I'm still doing me. I try to come up with different concept for my shows, you gotta keep the people interested, but I'm still me.

If movies have to satisfy every possible quadrant before they're even made, they're dull. You only get great things when people overreach themselves.

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 I tend to destroy the better paintings, or those that have been better to a certain extent. I try and take them further, and they lose all their qualities, and they lose everything. I think I would say that I destroy all the better paintings.

You can't make a movie for everybody. You can't go into it trying to alienate people, but you have to assume that you're going to.