Authentic Work Quotes

The joy is in the creation. So I've never had a target audience, it's always been about being true to the work as it emerges.

There is this idea in Hollywood, and I've seen it work for people, where the unspoken rule is 'Do two for them and one for yourself.' And that's kind of considered a fact. I've never really found that to be true for me. I've gotten more opportunities out of working on things I believed in than I ever did on things that weren't special to me.

I feel that I'm an essayist and that my best work gets done in that form. I wanted to do a book where the essays could exist on their own terms. A book that was neither a book of essays that were shoehorned into a memoir, nor [one where] the essays had been published elsewhere first, [because] then they would kind of bear the marks of those publications.

All worthwhile writing... comes from an individual vision, privately pursued.

Perhaps whatever there is in my work that may be really interesting to others and surely what is interesting to me, is the result of a sometimes successful effort to free myself from any idea that what I produce must be art.

There's something deeply satisfying when it succeeds, but I'm not going to do another book just to put my name on something and make some money if it's not something I deeply care about.

All my books are accidental books - they come from reacting to things and thinking about things and engaging in a real way. They are not about, 'Oh, did it get a good review in the Guardian?' I don't care.

Considering the multitude of mortals that handle the pen in these days, and can mostly spell, and write without glaring violations of grammar, the question naturally arises: How is it, then, that no work proceeds from them, bearing any stamp of authenticity and permanence; of worth for more than one day?

I just want to do good material. If I'm right for it, and it connects with me, and the material is good, I'm not going to say 'I'm just going to do this' or 'I have to do one of everything.' I'm not thinking like that.

In Hollywood, most things are based on looks, so I'd love to do something that has nothing to do with how I look.

The thing that really makes me happy is the real work and rehearsing and creating the character and the process of making the movie. Hollywood's not real.

I think it's a great time to put out quality work, and it will speak for itself. You don't have to work so hard at being successful at it, because it is something that people want, so when they want it and it is good, then they're going to get it and continue to give it to other people.

Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning.

It is a very honest world, our work. I think you cannot fake anything.

I avoid falling into a trap of doing work solely to impress people. I always ask myself, "What don't I ever see?"