Barbara Smith Quotes

I don't like to box myself in when I'm composing.

In every aspect of society, including business and anywhere that creativity can be used, we can be - or we used to be, anyway - the most innovative country, because we weren't restricted by artificial limitations. We are made to be wild, free, and creative, and this clearly was a symbol of that kind of energy in America.

Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.

The true self seeks release, not constraint. It doesn't want to be corseted in a sonnet or made to learn a system of musical notations. It wants liberation, which is why very often it fastens on the novel, for the novel seems spacious, undefined, free.

There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that's a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them.

You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.

Certainly in cartooning I'm given huge free rein at the moment.

Much good art got made while money ruled; I like a lot of it, and hardship and poverty aren't virtues. The good news is that, since almost no one will be selling art, artists - especially emerging ones - won't have to think about turning out a consistent style or creating a brand. They'll be able to experiment as much as they want.

Artists can do whatever they want!

An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.

Being in a space that's not a studio, it kind of creates an openness of 'We can do whatever we want here; we're not on the clock.'

There are no rules, no models; rather, there are no rules other than the general laws of Nature.

I am a blank slate - therefore I can create anything I want.

It's been exciting to be able to go forward with stuff without 10,000 people saying, It should be like this.

When I'm in the studio, there are no boundaries.

I am a poet; I am not a worker. I need to be free.

I believe that if we get out of people's way, the sky's the limit. The sky is the limit.

I knew that, when writing a book, you're not constrained by a budget. You're not constrained by what you can do, in terms of the special effects technology. You're not limited to any particular running time.

And, so yeah, I'll always want to work in independent films because you're not forced into a category or a formula.

It's just so much more exciting to have no limits and to be able to take your character as far as you want or need to get where you want to go.

No limit, no definition, may restrict the range or depth of the human spirit's passage into its own secrets or the world's.

The studio is a time when you can do anything that you want to. You have that freedom.

I can really write what I want. I can take time; I can do nothing for a year. That is paradise.

I'd like to shut off all the noise and allow people to be creative without all the judgments and standards that we think we have to follow.

Panic! at the Disco, for me, has been an outlet to do whatever. I never felt like there were any rules. It was always carte blanche. I could do whatever I wanted. There were no rules set yet for the band. It just felt right.