Vikram Bhatt Quotes

You have to be honest about what kind of films you want to make.

I am quite certain in my heart of hearts that modern music and modern art is not a conspiracy, but is a form of truth and integrity for those who practise it honestly, decently and with all their being.

My intention throughout has been to write, to create literature, and to be able to look people in the eye after I'd done it - the people I'd written about.

I think, as a filmmaker, it's important to be honest with yourself at all times in terms of what's working and what's not.

I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn't me.

You can't trust an artist that just makes good records.

Many filmmakers pretend that they never see anything, which has always seemed odd to me.

I'll never sing something that I've never been through. So even if I didn't write it, I have to have at least experienced it.

You get a lot of who you are as a musician across through the music you write. If you're writing your own music, then it's important to be really honest.

I think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it's to be true and not cover up the cracks.

I'm not just painting for painting's sake. I want to be truthful.

You can tell an honest artist from one who's just given all their songs.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

A writer's job is to tell the truth.

I feel some kind of duty to be really, really honest as a writer. The same is true of my songwriting.

You can only be yourself, and it sounds cheesy, but when it comes to filmmaking, there's really nowhere to hide.

If I can't be honest with music, forget it.

When you write, you don't really think of how honest you are being - it's only when you record that you understand how much of yourself you're giving.

If you pretend to be somebody that you're not when you write songs - and I did that on some of the early Styx albums - nobody cares about what you have to say.

I've got a long list of things I consider to be selling out. But amongst that list, one of them is when you make art without putting your guard down.

I think people are very interested when a creator is really trying to do something new and do it with integrity and honesty, when it gives them something they can connect with and has an emotional core.

I don't need to edit names out of songs and I don't need to edit details out of my songs because I've always been able to be honest with my music. That's the one place where I'm never ever going to change how I do things.

I think that as a writer your responsibility is to search for and stir up the things that are in this world. There is violence in all of us, and beauty, and strength, and weakness. What's my job? To only write about the good and the beauty, or is it to write about all of it? That's my greater responsibility, to write about them as I see them and as they are.

I think I've always been aware of it with my music. I think growing up basically and having a lot to deal with and just slowing down and having something to say and something to retract from, I think I just knew that what I was doing was extremely honest.

I have no trouble selling out—I’m a benevolent hack, in a certain way—but I want to pander for something I believe in.