Adrian Tomine Quotes

I am just an artist.

I never come away from a film thinking I nailed it.

For a long time I thought I was a poet, but that's a high title to claim.

I'm not a perfect player.

Catch me on a good day, I think half of my books aren't too bad. Catch me on a bad day, I think I've never written a good line.

You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.

One of the big songwriting things for me has always been: always think what you do sucks. Because the second you stop believing that, you suck. And that's a fact.

For the most part, works of mine are untitled. There was a brief period where I had poetic titles for works, and they're embarrassing now. I think, for the most part, it's not something that I have talent for.

The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn. The more I do it, the more I'm humbled. I'm just always trying to get better at it. I pick up a few tricks along the way.

When I was younger I thought I was an artist, and inspiration would just come to me.

It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character.

No one can really honestly be the very best, no one.

I wasn't the greatest technician when I played.

It's important to see the work of as many directors as possible but you must not become self-conscious. You have to accept that your first attempts are going to be quite rough compared to the finished works of great masters.

I'm happy that people think of me as the greatest tap-dancer that ever lived. But it's just a rumor. Because the greatest dancer that ever lived knows everything, and I don't. I'm still learning. I still have a lot of work to do.

I wrote for many years without showing my writing to anyone, because I was constantly comparing it to what I was reading. You have to compare yourself to the best and feel totally inadequate.

Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin.

I never really consider myself as a great artist. I just always like to draw.

I can't believe that I've written my best work yet. If I believed that, then I wouldn't bother releasing music anymore.

When you can write music that endures, bravo. Until then, keep quiet and study the work of those who can.

The Arts are learnt by reason and method; they are mastered by practice.

Even if I was really prolific - which I'm not - I think I'd always put at least a couple of covers on my record. I think it's a sort of healthy thing to do. It shows that you're not totally self-obsessed.

No true hero ever believes that they are one.

When I'm writing, I'm thinking, "Well, this might be a book that I'll always be happy with, and certainly readers will be happy with." But another part of me knows that when I'm past the stage of writing, the book is gonna have good things about it, bad things about it - probably more bad than good. I just know that. That's who I am.

I will never reach perfection.