Creative Honesty Quotes

I think the Beatles is one band that, if I'm working on a song arrangement or if I have some idea for a song, and there's a little bit of a Beatles quality to it, I never avoid that. I always will steer into it.

My thing is to try to tell the truth as honestly as possible. For me, the weight is, how can I tell the truth through fiction, the best that I can?

I deal with painting as I deal with things, I paint a window just as I look out of a window. If an open window looks wrong in a picture, I draw the curtain and shut it, just as I would in my own room. In painting, as in life, you must act directly.

An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally.

When I approach my music and my music videos, obviously all of the subjects and stories that I tell come from an honest, truthful place and the experiences that I've had.

I was taught never to compromise: to never sing a cheap song. I never look down at the audience and think that they are ignorant or think that I'm more intelligent than they are. To think otherwise is totally incorrect and runs contrary to everything I was raised to believe.

How I set myself apart is by creating the sort of real and honest music, which is who I'm also trying to be.

Don't imitate. Write what you know about, that has to be your goal.

I think the key for any kind of artist - and this transcends music - is a certain degree of authenticity and sincerity.

Years ago I read an interview with Paula Fox in which she said that in writing, truth is just as important as story. Reading that interview was the first time I really understood that there's no point in trying to impress people with my cleverness when I can just try to write honestly about what matters most to me.

If you're somebody who writes songs or writes fiction, a writer that people pay for your opinion in any way, you shouldn't be the least bit uncomfortable giving it to them. People want songwriters to tell them how they think and how they feel. That's what a song is. That's what I want to hear in a song.

I only believe in making movies with integrity.

I can only speak for myself and my own music, because that is what I am most familiar with, and I write about things that I am living or experiencing.

You have to write about what's inside you. If I have to get something out, I'll do it.

I'm not just painting for painting's sake. I want to be truthful.

Maybe some of the pronouns have changed, but I've always been honest in my music.

With the first two albums and with my social media, I've always been very open about who I am.

I think that's always the hope - I mean, I can't speak for others, but I think other artists, no matter what type of medium they are using - whether it be from painting to acting to dancing, songwriting, or anything like that - I believe the desire is to get to the truth, and I think it's really hard to tell the truth.

In art there is a need for truth, not sincerity.

If I can get it down on paper without puking all over the word processor, then as far as I'm concerned, it's fit to see the light of day.

Anyone who wants to know who I am can just read my lyrics - I've always written about who I am.

As an artist, as an actor, as a writer, you have to use what's personal to you. You have to be personal about your work; otherwise, it doesn't ring true.

A true artist never portrays to please, but to show.

We artists have the dignity to tell the truth to the people, unlike politicians.

For me, I'm constantly writing stuff that is what I'm dealing with on a personal, psychological level. And I think that I bring that to whatever I'm doing, whether it's being an actor or a writer or whatever it is I'm doing. I think you can't help but do that.