The only virtue on which I pride myself is my self-doubt; when a writer loses her self-doubt, the time has come to lay aside her pen.
The most available example of how poetry works for a poet is yourself, and yet you'll probably be the last one to know exactly how you're serving the art and how the art is serving you.
I think self-criticism is sort of a given when you're an actor. It's also about being curious and not being flippant. Anyone who accepts being in this noble profession is automatically self-critical.
I really believe that cultivating creativity, as a general principle, is about managing your energy.
I think anyone who lays a long trail of creative work over the years can't help but look back and wonder, 'What was I thinking?'
I think, as a filmmaker, it's important to be honest with yourself at all times in terms of what's working and what's not.
My question about my art and my music has always been, 'Am I good, or am I good because?' I'm not the artist who wants to have the 'because' attached.
The rigors of creativity - the self-doubt, the revising, the solitude - do require a kind of self-consumption. It comes at a cost; a cost that isn't for everyone.
I'd rather sing a good lyric written by someone else than one of my own that is terrible.
For a stretch of time, I got really caught up in the idea that what people liked about my work was that I was a young guy who was trying to be cool by writing about young people and a certain kind of Bay Area culture that I was tangentially a part of.
You have to recognize as a creative person that not everyone's going to be into what you're doing.
I always do my rap from the outside looking in. Like I do my rap as if I'm looking at me rap.
