Patti Smith Quotes

Joel Little and I have this certain chemistry we have when we work together.

Actors, writers, directors - that triumvirate of creativity - we have to rely and trust each other to be able to get to the final product.

I feel like that's a way people can change the way music is - to be guided by someone they believe in and trust. Larson and I really believed in each other. It was like brother/sister, father/daughter, we were laughing and yelling, that's how it is when you make an album! Essentially the trust was there and I got something great.

I just can't say enough about the actors having faith and trust in the writers and the writers having faith and trust in the actors.

Rodgers & Hart had a few flops before they clicked. You know, it happens. I don't know anyone who always gets away with everything.

If the chemistry between me and the artist is good, then that's half the battle.

I want to work with a director who becomes my brother, my father, for two months. You give yourself over to that person.

I see my actors as my collaborators.

My career has gone in such a way that I've gotten to learn that, when you're working with a great storyteller, you don't ask questions; you just trust them.

Hearing about a visual artist's approach can change the way you think about songwriting.

It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to kill him before he spoils it.

That is an amazing experience, because we with director Christian Petzold know whenever we criticize each other, it's for the best, and you don't find that very often, that you trust each other so much. That's a special thing.

If I'm talking to a photographer, I'm talking to a stylist, I'm talking to a makeup artist, we're kind of creating and collaborating and making something that is artwork and is special and is different.

With a film you go with the script that's already written. And I've never thought of a project, a film that would come from my own desire. I don't think I can do it. I need someone else's desire to be able to do something. With a record, it is completely different, it's a collaboration with another artist, but I'm willing to go into intimate places with no masks on.

When you work on a graphic novel or a film with people you've been together through a lot and you've exposed your secrets and weaker sides to each other.

In some way, the relationship between a director and an actor is personal.

As an actor you don't control the end result. Because you're a director, you get to control the end result. I think for us, we really have to show up and participate and give. And then let go.

It would be fun to write with Adele, actually. She seems like a fun girl to write with.

From an artist's point of view, I always want to work with the writers I admire.

I really like working with unique and unknown artists, as they usually bring something fresh to a song.

Good directors can bring certain things out of you, with their intensity or gentleness or sensitivity or understanding. They can make an actor feel he can do no wrong.

Sometimes two artists wanna work together, but it doesn't mean it's gonna happen, because you have to find the right idea.

You can never tell when an artist really will take up someone's work and work with it happily.

A film is like a mad arranged marriage, with all these people who don't necessarily want to be with each other forced into this intimate, exhausting process.

I've had wonderful collaborators. They're very different, just as actors are. Working on a show with Nathan Lane is different from working on a show with Chita Rivera. It keeps you on your toes because it's different every time.