Tom King Quotes

I didn't look at the previous 'A Wrinkle in Time' movie. I wrote ideas down from the book, but I didn't really want to copy that Meg. We're the same, but we're different at the same time. I wanted to make myself Meg. I didn't want to use somebody else or use a reference.

With every character, I just bring something that I can make my own.

It's great to get to make something in your own voice.

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

My attitude with covers is, make it your own or else leave it alone.

You have to add something of yourself to the portrayal.

You can only write your own vision.

Throw away my book: you must understand that it represents only one of a thousand attitudes. You must find your own. If someone else could have done something as well as you, don’t do it. If someone else could have said something as well as you, don’t say it—or written something as well as you, don’t write it. Grow fond only of that which you can find nowhere but in yourself, and create out of yourself, impatiently or patiently, ah! that most irreplaceable of beings.

The best advice I've received is to be yourself. The best artists do that.

The thing you must really do in television is bring yourself to everything you do - you can't try to be anybody else.

No age is compelled to take its beauty from preceding epochs.

My style is all to myself.

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.

When I teach writing, I have a mantra: 'Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.'

When you're recording classic songs, you've got to kind of make them your own, and you can't always worry about what people are going to think.

If you think too much about playing an icon, it will immobilize you. You have to treat it like a fresh character. Sure, there are guidelines so that you don't upset people, but you have to find your own way.

Don't be afraid to take liberties with this music. Try and put some of yourself into it.

I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin' like myself.

The only thing new is you finding out about something. Like nothing's really new, but you reinvent it for yourself and find your inner voice.

People said when I started, 'Why don't you just copy your father's style?' I had to be myself, singing my songs in my own way.

It's strange: I've done so many things up until I did 'Obvious Child,' including writing children's books and making 'Marcel the Shell.' To me, the through-line is incredibly clear: it all comes from wanting to be connected to my own inner voice and not wanting to be on somebody else's agenda if that means that I can't be myself.

Don't try to guess what it is people want and give it to them. Don't ask for a show of hands. Try your best to write what you like, what you think your friends would like and what you think your father would like and then cross your fingers... The most valuable thing you have is your own voice.

Covers are always so fun to do, but there's nothing like telling your own story.

I love finding ways to make familiar characters into someone unique.

If you are going to be a character for the long-term you can't just imitate, you have to bring yourself to it.