Karen O Quotes

I like movies, because it's kind of a combination of every art, it's like it's picture, it's story, it's music, it's kind of like a clash and a collide of every art. It's really neat.

One thing that I always liked about fashion was that it was tied in with music and art and film.

I spend a lot of time working as a painter and in my studio I go from upstairs where I paint to downstairs where I play and record, so I get this thing crossing over.

I'm sort of like Jean-Paul Goude, the graphic designer who used to style Grace Jones and shoot all her visuals, just meaning that I use all mediums in one - music, fashion, and art. I'm hitting it from all angles.

I was king of the mountain for a long time, well, I don't want that no more. I like to perform every once in a while for people who want to see me, and cut albums of music that is what I'm really about.

I've been making music for a long time, but I've been waiting to do it right, because I don't want people to think it's just a stepping stone in my career. A lot of actors go that route as a way of building their careers. I don't want it to be seen as that.

While I write for myself, I also write for other artists too.

The art of the word is painting + architecture + music.

I started calling myself the Pied Piper, when I started using the flute sound in my music.

I've been really trying to put people onto, like, my sound since I was, like, 17, 16.

I've always considered myself a poet in everything that I do, whether it's photography or movie-making.

Writing is very much perceived as something distinct from performance. I don't see it like that.

I couldn't do a record without knowing I'll translate it into something visual.

I just make videos and stuff. There's not much more to it than that. I'm a musician trying to express myself.

As someone that really likes painting and visual art but also likes video and movies and also music and recording and style and clothes, it was hard to pick what to do with my life.

I want to be known for my music, and that takes time.

I feel that performing is its own art form, and recording is its own art form, and writing is its own art form, and that they all can happen simultaneously but at different paces.

Before I was working professionally, I would do YouTube covers. But as a creative person, it was really hard for me when I wasn't releasing my own music. That felt unnatural to me.

I've been composing and performing for as long as I can remember.

I think visually, and music videos spark my creativity.

Hip-hop is my vehicle for scientific enlightenment. It wasn't until my music career matured where I was exposed to science as an intellectual pursuit.

Originally, I was set on going to Hawaii Pacific University. We visited the campus in Hawaii. I was gonna be a Rainbow Warrior. I was gonna play softball. I was gonna major in marine biology. Everything was set. Then my dad was like, 'So you're not gonna do music? If you do go to Hawaii, there's no studios there, baby girl.'

As soon as I went to painting school in New York, I took an experimental film course, and everything clicked and came together. I realized my love of music and drama and the visual arts all came together. This happened in 1989. Since then, it's been a long road of educating myself in every possible way.

I try not to see myself as anything, as that would be embarrassing. But if I had to label myself, I'd probably say I was an artist due to the fact that I enjoy working within the arts on different platforms, of which comedy is just one.

What's always interested me the most about ballet is it's this great opportunity for many different artistic mediums to come together to create a cohesive experience.