Branford Marsalis Quotes

Every song, every form of art, clothing, shoes, it has to be special.

Own what you are, and I mean whether that's art, or whether that's fashion, or whether that's music, or whether that's acting, or whether that's politics, or whether that's literature; it's own what you are, and grab it, and, you know, be as prolific as possible.

In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable.

Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.

Craft can get you through ninety percent of a piece, but it's art that carries you at the end.

I gave my genius to my life, but my talent to my art.

Art creates an incomparable and unique effect, and, having done so, passes on to other things. Nature, upon the other hand, forgetting that that imitation can be made the sincerest form of insult, keeps on repeating this effect until we all become absolutely wearied of it.

I'm not "filled with my art". I ain't got no art. I've got only a kind of craftsman's skill, and make stories as I make biscuits or embroider underwear or wrap up packages.

When it comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in art – and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

Writing songs is a trade like anything else.

I was never a skilled artist or anything like that - never a rebel.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

Art is anything people do with distinction.

My mom is a sculptress.

I know I'm known for singing some of those high notes, but that's really not what giving someone goosebumps is all about. It's about really trying to find what makes you unique.

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

I never had the dream to be a great designer. My focus was just to do beautiful things.

Acting, producing, writing, directing - it's all part of something that I believe I was born to be part of.

The best thing an actor can bring to a role is himself - that's no secret.

The mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman's heart.

Craft is everything.

Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.

The music I make, I'm different.

I'm hard to imitate because I'm not gifted enough.