That’s what you want to do as an older artist – you want to reinvent, but there has to be that vein in there for why people were listening to you before in the first place. – Garth Brooks
I’d never compare myself to Freddie Mercury because I look up to him far too much. As an artist, not necessarily as a person. – Mika
Being an artist doesn’t mean that you’re a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I’d say, I’m an artist, but I’m not really very good. – Paul Simon
As an artist, you don’t think about the parabola or the arc you’re describing or where you’re going to ultimately end up, you’re just kind of crawling around, seeing what’s out there. – Michael Nesmith
Since I was the solo artist as well as the writer for the songs, I figured I had enough credits on it already. – Cy Coleman
Any creation of art is conceived and born under influences, amidst the atmosphere of reverie and the most customary volition of the artist. It is there, in any case, that his work arises from. – Emile Galle
I think about that ’empty’ space a lot. That emptiness is what allows for something to actually evolve in a natural way. I’ve had to learn that over the years – because one of the traps of being an artist is to always want to be creating, always wanting to produce. – Meredith Monk
It would be awesome to stay popular, but if I was only an underground artist, I would be okay with that. – Cassie Ventura
When you’re a writer, your song has to resonate with the person you’re writing for in order for them to want to sing it. But if you’re an artist, you can sing whatever you want. – Mike Posner
An artist makes a painting, and nobody bugs him or her about it. It’s just you and your painting. To me, that’s the way it should be with film as well. – David Lynch
One of the things that sells music is when the artist is looked at as someone who’s come up from the streets. Not just any streets, but the toughest, meanest streets of the urban ghetto. And that’s called ‘street credibility.’ – Geoffrey Canada
I had a fistfight with every kid on my block. I got about fifteen broken noses to prove it. Part of it was also because I was always drawing, and I always had an artist portfolio with me. But I was a tough kid. I won their respect. – George Lois
Doubtless there are things in nature which have not yet been seen. If an artist discovers them, he opens the way for his successors. – Paul Cezanne
I’ve always been a fan of Nigerian artist D’banj. He’s now signed to Kanye West’s Good Music label. – Estelle
What people don’t understand is that how you are as an artist depends on how you are emotionally. – Ellie Goulding
Can that make any sense – a Belgian artist living in Mexico and working in Afghanistan? – Francis Alys
As an artist, you need to be not at all entitled in your relation with the work. So money is kind of worrying. You can start to expect things if you’re used to a certain level of comfort. – Eleanor Catton
Art is maybe a subversive activity. There is a certain rebellion when you are an artist at heart, even if only in the art of living. – Philippe Petit
I paint landscapes, figuratives. I painted all my life. In fact, I started as a commercial artist. – Pierce Brosnan
The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don’t dare reveal. – Elia Kazan
I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives. – Paul Simon
The most successful Subway customers, of course, are the ones who can’t keep their hands off their sandwich. Join your artist in the sandwich assembling process. That sneeze guard is a suggestion. That sneeze guard is trying to intimidate you into staying on the customer’s side of the partition. – Mallory Ortberg
