Artist Frustration Quotes

Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second rate Freudian evaluation on my lyrics when 90% of the time they've transcribed the lyrics incorrectly?

I was frustrated in the past, like, 'Wow, why do they have to throw me in the R&B urban adult contemporary lane?' 'Woman' was a no. 1 hit at Urban AC, so there's no disrespect to that lane. But did it get a fair shot at urban radio? No, I don't think so.

The American record company Geffen got so fed up with me that they said they weren't going to release my fourth record unless I gave it some title. So it was called 'Security' in America, and it had no title everywhere else in the world.

The frustrating part of being an artist is that I can do a whole interview, and all most people are going to see is the headlines. As artists, we should be able to write our own headlines.

People are always asking me to sign my old canvases. It's ridiculous!

To me, Def Jam put my career on hold. I was used to making 13-14 songs a year, and they trickled that down to nothing.

We live for our concerts. We like a live appearance more than anything else about this business and it bothers us when we put so much into it and the critics bomb us.

Many artists give up after a while.

There are fewer roles, and I've done so many things already that I don't want to repeat, so to find something you haven't done is harder. I don't want to play a country singer again.

I'm so sick of hearing that U.K. hip hop doesn't get credit and success when I'm working to get it - for me and for others, too.

Death Row had a lot of artists. They had Snoop, the Dogg Pound, the Lady of Rage, and there was other artists that was also on the label, so it was a big list and a long wait. I didn't want to wait that long, so I started branching off and doing my own thing.

There's been someone up here screaming 'Landslide' for the whole show... Normally we don't play 'Landslide,' but on occasion we've been known to play it... So since this person's been screaming it all show long... That just about kills the chances of me playing it tonight, or ever again.

I don't want to go on tour and have everyone just sitting there waiting for one song.

The thing that I don't like is the selfie when people turn their back to the stage. I'm playing my heart out, I put everything that I have into my performance. If someone turns their back to me like a zoo animal... that drives me absolutely bananas.

I love making films, but the best roles are hard to come by.

Well, Led Zeppelin IV! That's it really. I'll tell you why the album had no title - because we were so fed up with the reactions to the third album, that people couldn't understand why that record wasn't a direct continuation of the second album. And then people said we were a hype and all, which was the furthest thing from what we were. So we just said, 'let's put out an album with no title at all!' That way, either people like it or they don't... but we still got bad reviews!

The thing with me and The Strokes and talking about stuff is I hate reading about it. I wish they just didn't write about me. I mean, I'm putting out a new record, and it's like, 'The Strokes are getting back together!' If they wanted to do that, why don't they just write an article on The Strokes? I don't like being the spokesperson for the band.

What's happened to the music industry, from my perspective, is a lot of great music is behind the wall that can't get through, and therefore, a lot of artists are getting discouraged.

As an artist, sometimes you'd rather not do the interview. You might feel the interviewer isn't educated on you... or what you're about.

I'd much rather talk about guitar playing. I hate it when people ask me about my lyrics. I always feel like telling them to just go and read them.

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked, 'When are you doing an album?' My career is way too transparent to do say, 'Guess what - I've got 16 tracks you've never heard!'

What I said, what are you [Rick Rubin] going to do with me that nobody else has been able to do to sell records with me?

My YouTube videos have literally millions of views... Yet I'm still airbrushed out of the BBC Stalinist revision of history; the chart shows have been instructed not to play my music!

The most irritating experience for an artist is to have his work criticized before it is finished.

If I could make albums quicker, I'd be on a roll wouldn't I? Everything just seems to take so much time. I don't know why. Time... evaporates.