Boots Riley Quotes

I prefer writing originals.

I just follow what inspires me as an artist and a storyteller, and stay true to myself in my work.

I just try to write literally what I love. That's usually the barometer that I use. As trite as it sounds, I'm like, 'what would I want to see? What would I be excited about?'

Readers would email me and say, 'Please write a novel about so-and-so,' but it has to come from yourself and not so much from your readership.

I want to do nothing chic, I want to have ideas before beginning a piece.

No, I never had any dreams. The process of art is a dream in itself. The artist just doesn't... you work out something. It's yours. You don't have to go to sleep to do that. You do that on the canvas.

I really don't think of my work in terms of a genre. I think of it in terms of what I want to say, what I think is cool, and what I'm good at.

No one was creating and I always wanted to be created on.

If you are a creative person, you try to create things that are an extension of yourself.

As I get on and films take four years to complete, I tend to have a hankering for very short projects so you can move on to the next idea. It's the ideas I'm interested in. What comes out of your head.

Artists today think of everything they do as a work of art. It is important to forget about what you are doing - then a work of art may happen.

I've worked with people who wanted to be creative every day: it was like a goal to arrive with something very special. Sometimes it's just disturbing, because special is good when it's needed. But when it's not needed, it's confusing, and you go away from the authenticity by a strong desire to be unique and singular.

You're creating ' it comes from the heart, the spirit, the soul. You're not manufacturing somebody else's plan, somebody else's blueprint, somebody else's idea that's not yours. So when you're creating, that's the beauty side of art, you know? It comes from within you.

I love creating things that come from my gut and my soul.

The way I work is not the way that you work, and the whole point of any creative act is that. What I have to offer is me, what you have to offer is you, and if you offer yourself with authenticity and generosity I will be moved.

You know a trillion times more about art than me. But I’ve learned that it isn’t necessary to know all that much. You just make what you wanna see, right? It’s a game, right? It’s like being paid for dreaming.

Artists should never look at pictures, but should stutter in a language of their own.

That's the most important thing in art: to be aware, pay attention, be inspired - but it should come ultimately from you.

Writing music is really personal, and it's a really exciting thing to participate in because represents the full creative process: It feels like something is coming from nothing.

To be an artist, you have to nurture the things that most people discard.

There are certain things I do because I am creatively inspired and artistic.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I start a picture and I finish it.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

To be an artist, you need to play inside your work.