Ann Beattie Quotes

I don't control anything I create.

A film has its own life and takes its own time.

Sometimes when you're creating something, it takes on a life of its own, and you can be surprised at how sad or dramatic it might get.

I always feel when you work with an artist and whenever I work with a really good photographer, I try to give him or her their own artistic freedom because that's the way you get the best work or at least the most interesting work.

The process of writing and creating and answering that very unique call inside yourself has nothing to do with agents and sales and all that stuff.

I've done a lot of writing for other people, other projects, and what I tried to do with the music I'm putting out for myself is kind of keep it where I'm doing everything.

All our forms are unique - movies, music and literature - and you have to leave the person who is doing it to do their best.

Everyone will always have ideas about how to make your work better. Everyone has advice about how to end your play differently. Start it differently. And it's not about right or wrong. At the end of the day, it's your baby, and you know what's best.

I always say I want creative control. A lot of people don't think about that. And that's what every artist should think of - being creative and not just a puppet.

I feel like there are things that inspire the music, and then there's the music itself. I don't feel like I always need to force them together.

It wasn't slung together by a producer and a publisher. We decided we were going to take hold of our music and let it evolve organically.

What I've learned and all of us have learned is: You can't force art, and there's no way you could force somebody to do something that they didn't want to do in this line of work.

You just gotta record stuff and move on and make new material. Painters don't wait until they're in some specific gallery before they move on to the next painting.

It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind. We need to protect artists and journalists people to allow them to work.

What I have in mind when I start to write could fit inside an acorn-an acorn, moreover, that rarely if ever grows into an oak. Write fiction and you relinquish reason. You start with an acorn and you end up with a mackerel.

Art is very mysterious. I wonder if you can really do any damage to art. I think that when we're writing, something comes through or should come through, in spite of our theories. So theories are not really important.

As an artist, what you do is you put out material constantly. Whether it's films, or TV shows, music... and you know, you hope people respond to it. You always have to know, as well, that not everybody's gonna like it. And that's okay. It's not for everyone. It's just for the crusty nugs.

Any time you turn off and let someone else make any artistic decision for you, you make a mistake.

It's not like I go into the studio and say I'm going to try to make music to prove to somebody that I can make music.

Focus on the play like it has a history and a life of its own.

I don't feel any obligation to make my intentions for a song accessible to a listener or an audience. I'm not interested in conveying anything to them so much as what's best for me.

Everything an artist spits is art.

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later.

The only things that distinguish the photographer from everybody else are his pictures: they alone are the basis for our special interest in him. If pictures cannot be understood without knowing details of the artist's private life, then that is a reason for faulting them; major art, by definition, can stand independent of its maker.