A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
Except theatre, there is no medium which can satisfy good artistes in India.
If you are ever completely satisfied with something you have written, you are setting your sights too low. But if you can't let go of your material even after you have done the best that you can with it, you are setting your sights too high.
Usually the poems are written in one sitting. There's always a groping towards some satisfying ending. But I'd say the hardest part is not writing. Once the writing starts, it's too pleasurable to think of it as a difficulty.
I got no thrill from solving an integral equation, but I did get a thrill from building an exotic piece of equipment that worked.
I would rather do three or four small parts every year as opposed to some of the lower-hanging fruit that might get my name above the title.
In terms of creativity, both are equally satisfying. Music album is for yourself, where you compose songs and stuff like that, and in films, you have a story, characters, and songs penned by someone else.
I don't feel comfortable making empty music.
I've produced a couple of films and really enjoyed starting it from the very beginning and seeing it all the way through to the end; that was very gratifying.
I loved doing 'Bad Moms.' I loved doing 'We're the Millers.' But now that I've tasted complexity, it doesn't matter what the genre is - it would be really hard to go back.
You do the work and you want people to see it; but, um while I'm doing the work, the result doesn't matter at all to me. Ultimately, I don't, I don't care whether the film is - you know - some big giant box-office bonanza and I don't care if its a complete flop. To me, when a film gets made and it's actually finished it's a success. They're all a success in their own way.
When you spend two to three years working on an album that I feel very happy with the end result, there is nothing I would change. Musically, I have achieved what I set out to do.
After I had my baby, I reprioritized my life in general. I really wanted to play characters that gave me a different kind of fulfillment. That is a difficult thing to find, especially as an actress.
One of the things you're doing when you make art, apart from entertaining yourself and other people, is trying to see what ways of working feel good, what feels right.
As an artist, you're always going to be yearning and wanting and never satisfied. I never feel like I've really achieved something.
Art is not the kind of thing where you get what you put into it all the time. So I learned to not expect anything other than the sort of joy of having a poem in front of me.
For me, movie-making is more than making a 'hit' film. It's about working with a team of people I really respect and doing something that gives me satisfaction.
Unlike the stage, I never found it helpful to be good in a bad movie.
I feel like I've finally made it as an actor. I've been doing this for years and you don't always make a movie that everybody likes.
I don't watch a lot of my work. I'm not really interested in seeing it after I do it. Because I came from theater, where, you know, it's impossible to actually review your work, so why would I bother under any other circumstances?
Once the film is released, once my job is over, I can't see the film again.
I would love to win an Oscar one day. That would be a very wonderful thing. But in the meantime, I really hope that I make films I'm proud of. A lot of people aren't going to like the movies I make, I'm sure. But as long as I'm proud of the movie and I'm not selling out, and I'm doing things that make me happy and make me grow as an actress, I'll be good.
The songs that I'm able to write are the songs I'm able to write, whatever they may be. The path I've cut for myself is pop music - love-y pop music. That's what I enjoy doing. And I don't think I'm going to get sick of it anytime soon.
The best work never was and never will be done for money.
Whatever I do, no matter it's for television, web or the big screen - it should satisfy me as an actor.
