Zitat des Tages von Frank Ocean:
I can't usually stomach a project after I finish it, but for those days and weeks and months that it's new to me, I do listen to it, and it might change over time, but it's about function.
I grew up in New Orleans. I had just moved into my dorm at the University of New Orleans, and I was doing laundry, and my mom called me, like, 'We've got to evacuate. There's a hurricane's coming.'
I can operate in half-a-song format.
Obviously, the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I'm watching a Wes Anderson movie, the colour palettes alone, and the way they're painted, could be art. With music, you're a little bit limited, of course, because it's only audio.
I wrote 'Channel Orange' in two weeks. The end product wasn't always that gritty, real-life depiction of the real struggle that happened.
Because I'm not in a record deal, I don't have to operate in an album format.
How we experience memory sometimes, it's not linear. We're not telling the stories to ourselves. We know the story; we're just seeing it in flashes overlaid.
I don't fear anybody... at all.
You gotta make sure the listener is listening to you, so if you put it into a song, often times, if the song is striking enough, then you can really deliver the story most effectively while keeping the ear of the listener the whole time.
I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.
The Internet is just another experiment showing us more sides of us.
I'm extremely compassionate, loving, all of those warm fuzzy things, but the outer shell doesn't project that all the time.
Of course awards matter.
I believe that I'm one of the best in the world at what I do, and that's all I've ever wanted to be.
It's hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.
Here's what I think about music and journalism: The most important thing is to just press play.
I respect Drake not only as a creative person but as a business mind as well. I think Drake's important.
When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, 'No, I'm just going to write what I feel I should write.'
I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.
I'm in this business to be creative - I'll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.
I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.
I like the anonymity that directors can have about their films.
I'm not a centerfold.
When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family - not even my mother - who I could look to and be like, 'I know you've never said anything homophobic.' So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you've heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.
It's not essential for me to have a big debut week; it's not essential for me to have big radio records.
As a writer, as a creator, I'm giving you my experiences. But just take what I give you. You ain't got to pry beyond that.
The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too - eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko's, Fatburger, Subway - I was a sandwich artist - and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.
I enjoy singing my songs in front of people.
I feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.
In art, at a certain level, there is no 'better than.' It's just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognised.
I'm about being the best.
It's cool to be recognised by your peers.
This has always been my life and no one else's, and that's how it's always been since the day I came in it.
I had writer's block for almost a year.
Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.
The work is the work. The work is not me.