Tony Kushner Quotes

That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

When I go into the studio, I completely detach. I let my emotions come out.

Some days you feel like this is really going well. You can tell. Other days, you're just drawing like a farmer and you don't know why.

When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That kind of thinking gets in the way.

Sometimes I feel as if sections of my ballets were done for me - that I didn't do them myself.

For the most part, works of mine are untitled. There was a brief period where I had poetic titles for works, and they're embarrassing now. I think, for the most part, it's not something that I have talent for.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

I don't feel prolific. I feel like I'm plodding along. Each day you sit down, and you hope that you get your work done.

As for the zone, I always find the zone immediately after I am sure I will never ever find the zone again because it has left me for some other, better writer.

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.

I think that's just part of how it is with making art. Sometimes you're just flooded with ideas, and then other times you're questioning all the ideas you ever had before, and everything is just... lame.

Anytime you put yourself in a creative box, it's going to stifle you; it's not conducive to the writing or recording process.

I'm a believer that you shouldn't really talk about the drawing until you're done with the drawing.

Any working composer or painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour rather than as a bolt out of the blue. We have to get our vanities and our preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that writing is mysterious; you don't ever truly know where it is coming from, so don't edit yourself line by line. Don't get in your own way. Whatever is truly there at the core, that is your voice.

Maybe some people, when they sit down to write their great novel or make their great record or paint their great painting, they have it all planned out in their head. But for me, it's never worked that way.

I've always looked at filmmaking as a lifestyle. There is no decision of when you go to work. It's a way of life: you're thinking about scripts; you see things and think, 'That could be interesting'... I don't think about my work as, 'Today I'll work on this, this and that.' It just comes to me.

Because of my methodology and my sensibilities to write songs, I'm not very comfortable with the notion to rush in any creative endeavor.

Sometimes, when you get into a record, it's like writing a book, and you get so far inside the story you can't tell anymore if it's gonna be good to an outside listener.

Being a creative person, I want to feel the highs and the lows.

Even if you're not releasing songs, the act of creativity is important. That's the part I love, when you're in the moment. The rest of it I'm not particularly interested in at all.

That's the worst and best thing about being in the studio, feeling completely lost and not knowing how to put the final touch on something. But once you find it, there's nothing like that feeling.

That's always the time to quit - when you have nothing to say as an artist and creative person.

I would say any creative person has that: you can't just force a topic. Whether you're a painter, you want to do a cartoon. Anything. Something may come up that's not your style or suited to what you are working on at the moment. So you file it away and hopefully find a place for it.