John Sexton Quotes

My pictures are never pre-visualized or planned. I feel strongly that pictures must come from contact with things at the time and place of taking. At such times, I rely on intuitive, perceptual responses to guide me, using reason only after the final print is made to accept or reject the results of my work.

I get a sentence, an idea, an image, and I start. I don't know anything beyond it. I follow it.

I think there's one thing which distinguishes our art - we don't consider. We don't think. We write a little verse because it comes to us.

Most songs I write are spur-of-the-moment-type things. I have to be spontaneous. If not, songwriting can bore me. There is no pre-design or idea of what I am going to do when I go into the studio. It's all like that for me. I could go in and write two or three songs in an eight-hour session. You can't over-think songs. You just can't.

As an artist, you don't think about the parabola or the arc you're describing or where you're going to ultimately end up, you're just kind of crawling around, seeing what's out there.

I just throw it out and see what happens. If it sounds and feels right, then I continue.

Very often, writing a song is a process that happens to me rather than one that I instigate. I feel a song coming on and, like a sneeze; I wait for it until it comes.

None of my books has been ever in my head; after they're finished, they go. It's like being a sort of medium; you just grab it when it's there then just release it when it's time to go. There's a lot of instinct, not planning.

The reason is that they define how I have gone about my business. I have trusted to intuition. I did it at the beginning. I do it even now. I have no idea how things might turn out, where in my writing I might go next.

I play as I feel.

Choosing to write a play is some kind of surrender. I don't make an outline. I sit and work, and suddenly the door opens, and out it comes.

With 'Silver Linings,' I didn't feel - I was thinking of certain things, but I just said, 'Let me go with it.' You have to know what you're doing, where you're going with the scenes, and I put a lot of work into that. But when you're out there, at the same time you gotta be ready for anything.

I just really allowed my muse to be my guide and I just go with whatever I'm feeling.

When I'm writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I'm doing it, as I'm writing it.

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help.

I just choose the scripts I want to work on. I don't know why. It's not something conscious or that I'm doing on purpose.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk.

With this album, I tried not to think too much. If I heard a song that I loved, I promised myself I wouldn't over-think it. If I loved it and if I wanted to cut it, I would.

Melody is pure intuition. I don't use any thinking brain when I do that. That's totally in the zone.

When you're out there thinking too much, that's when you can throw the ball away a lot of times. Just play. When I don't think, I have fun.

When I write a book, I don't have an idea of what I'm doing. I just go where it leads.

I really like writing poetry and lyrics because it's one thing where I give up control. I don't feel like I need to be in control of it. I just sort of let it happen, and then I know when it's done. I know when it's finished.