Kamasi Washington Quotes

Wholeness is the enemy of the artist. We ought to be broken, ruined in some way.

I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.

With the first album, I wanted to do so many different things, and I was fighting with myself to try and see if I was worthy enough to do it.

Every day, I walk the streets with my head held high, but deep down inside, sometimes I'm like, 'I just hope I can get through the day.'

My playground as a musician is growing.

I constantly have a devil on my shoulder telling me that what I'm doing is really horrible, and then somehow the lightning strike happens and everything comes together. I've just realized I have to live with that devil on my shoulder a little bit more.

I go into the whole composer thing quite open to keep on going and keep on trying different things because you never know... the next idea you have might be the one.

Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches.

'Cause I felt I didn't have anything else to prove as a musician... and boy was I wrong about that one.

Like everyone else, I've had moments when I've felt that I've been losing my grip.

Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and come out with a piece of music.

Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.

I never set out to write a certain kind of song, I just play my guitar and see if I catch something.

The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn. The more I do it, the more I'm humbled. I'm just always trying to get better at it. I pick up a few tricks along the way.

In so many ways, it feels the same now when I play as the very first time I picked up the instrument. There's always this sound out there that's just a little bit beyond my reach and I'm trying to get there and that just sort of keeps me going.

Every album, I'm worried that I'm a dork and a fraud - 'What if I can't sing anymore?' Then I stop thinking and start playing guitar, and I realize that it's okay to suck, and move forward.

When we make records, it's hard to pinpoint one thing that inspires a record. It's usually a number of different things that lead to inspiration or wanting to write something down and share it with someone.

I don't need to manufacture trauma in my life to be creative. I have a big enough reservoir of sadness or emotional trauma to last me.

One doesn't want to feel too contented; you have to feel challenged by the music.

Any art worth its name requires you to be fundamentally lost for a very long time.

I try to put myself into unusual and difficult situations as often as I can in order to capture the element of struggle in the music.

But that's something that I like about scoring film: it makes me reach out of the parameters of my self, it requires me to do things musically that I wouldn't normally do left to my own devices.

I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.

You have to be serious, and you must have a constantly inquiring mind. But I find it's new music that really stretches me, both technically and as an interpreter.

All the big loud housey songs came from the idea of 'I want to create the same song over and over again.' Except that I've created each one in a different location, or a different mindset.