John McEnroe Quotes

Selling another 10 million albums is not a priority. Putting out something you're proud of is.

I just don't want to do films for the sake of it.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

True artists are almost the only men who do their work for pleasure.

I'm not looking to be an artist to make money. I'm looking to be an artist.

I don't care about the charts; I just want to make great music that I enjoy performing on stage and I'm proud of.

I don't believe that artists really are interested in money. That's not the motivation for art.

The way I choose projects is based on what I think is most real and most interesting, not on what's paying the most money or what's most popular.

Fame, money and the size of the market are not very important to me. What is, is writing a book that is worth doing and then publishing it. I don't write books for entertainment, for people to pass the time then throw away.

I don't need the money, dear. I work for art.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

I can't do a film just for the sake of it.

I should be satisfied first as an actor with my work. I will not do something because everyone is doing it.

At the end of the day, all you really have is your own sense of your artistic ability and I've always stuck with that my whole life. I guess there is always a bit of relief that I have and real joy of being able to engage other people who are talented, equally or better than you, and you can work with them.

The best thing about being an artist, instead of a madman or someone who writes letters to the editor, is that you get to engage in satisfying work. Even if you never publish a word, you have something important to pour yourself into.

If I make two movies my entire life, and they're two movies that - whether they make a lot of money or two people go to see them - they speak of me, then I consider them incredibly successful. I don't need to be Steven Spielberg.

There is an incredible love in creating art unless somebody is saying, 'Hey, let's just make money,' because it doesn't work when you do it that way. If you are aiming for that, forget it.

Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer; it is joy; it is art.

In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

Yet I never want to make a movie purely for the money.

Just doing a project because it's an opportunity won't create meaning. As an artist, I need something to communicate.

Satisfying myself is the point in filmmaking, in my mind.

Everyone has different goals. For myself, I would rather take less roles and be working on films that I'm passionate about, that are going to challenge me, and that I'm going to be growing from. I don't ever want to take a movie just for the sake of working.

I don't like to use my last name. I don't like it attached to things because people think you can just stamp your name on something, and it's not organic or that you're just doing it for money.

I've always been really picky about roles and make a point of reminding myself that it's not about the money - because, obviously, there's a lot of money to be made in this business if you're willing to do anything.