Overall my race hasn't been a problem. I'm a Black artist with White skin. At the end of the day you have to sing what's in your own soul.
Writing songs has always been my first and foremost love, and, you know, whether I continue to have success as an artist or not, I will always write songs.
Being a recording artist, selling music, selling concerts out, having a reality show, starting film; it's great, it's beautiful.
Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by that is, I was ready to be completely vulnerable and honest with myself and unapologetic when it comes to how I express myself in my medium. But I wasn't as secure in doing that when it came to just being myself.
Men, when they fight in movies, it's a very different style. Harrison Ford was so cool when he had the whip, and Bruce Lee was such an artist that you couldn't take your eyes off of him.
The conscience of an artist worthy of the name is like an incurable disease which causes him endless torment but occasionally fills him with silent joy.
I think, as an artist, part of your job is being aware of what's going on around you and not selling out and not following the trend, which I'm totally against.
I think the best thing an artist can do is not hang out with other artists. I really dislike hanging out with musicians, for the most part, except for a few select friends, because I don't like to talk about music all the time.
I actually quite like promo, which is quite odd for an artist, but recording's not the easiest thing.
I guess I had a suspicion of it my entire life without knowing exactly what it was - knowing that there was something different about me, which I attributed to being an artist. At 11 or 12 I started sort of clarifying for myself. It took a while.
As an artist, you know as a person in the public eye, period, you kind of have a responsibility to the younger kids that are watching and emulating what you do.
It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people.
My mom was a freethinking artist - she was wild and would do anything to get a laugh from me. She'd go in reverse through a drive-through so I could order from the window: 'Hi, can I get a milk shake?'
I feel confident that the work I've put in will make people see me as a music artist before anything else.
I have been doing some writing on the side a little bit with artists that I'm really excited about. Kind of more up and coming people. But, I'm focusing more on my own project. It's a full time job being an artist!
A visual image in the hand of an artist is merely a tool to trigger a mental image.
It's such a changing industry, and I realize that it's become more digital- and singles-driven, but I still love listening to a full record. It's the artist's story captured in 12 or 15 songs.
I'm an artist who works with pictures and words. Sometimes that stuff ends up in different kinds of sites and contexts which determine what it means and looks like.
A good producer brings out the best in the artist he's working with. You shouldn't be able to listen to something and say, 'So-and-so produced this album.'
I'm not religious, but by nature I am spiritual. I'm an artist, and creativity seems to go hand in hand with spirituality. But I have a knee-jerk reaction against organized religions. Actually, I have knee-jerk reactions against anything that's organized.
Neither of my parents are involved in theater or acting, but they are very artistic. My mom is a painter; she's an artist. She went to school for fashion illustration. My father is into collecting antiques and fine wine, so they're both really creative people.
When I'm writing a song for another artist, I purposefully make it not for me; otherwise, I get too attached.
Barton Fink is just too self-important as an artist to get much sympathy.
I feel like 'Next To Me' is a great introduction because it's a simple song that has a simple message for me. I wanted to introduce something that lyrically I'm proud of and introduces me both as an artist and as a writer.
There are infinite modes of expression in the world of art, and to insist that only by one road can the artist attain his ends is to limit him.
2017 saw a slew of big pop and hip-hop records, a number of breakout female singer-songwriters and all-girl bands, and the return of beloved '60s soul artist Don Bryant and pop star Kesha.
I think it's so important as an artist to stand up for what you believe in, and I think that if equal rights is something that you really believe in, and you have a voice that people listen to, and you need to share that - I think that's really important.
I hope what I do has an art to it, and as an artist you have to try new things and keep yourself entertained.
Art is the collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
I think, by nature, human beings are curious. And I think that's only amplified as an artist.
Any artist always has misgivings about calling himself an artist.
You think, 'You hired me because I'm a creative artist with a vision. Don't try and knock it out of me.'
I was a visual artist primarily and a writer, even from a very young age.
An artist can go paint, and a writer can go write, but an actor needs to get hired, needs somebody to say, 'Here, come and do this,' That's the hard part.
Yeah, the industry has always been both the enemy and the best friend of the artist. They need each other. That's the bottom line.
Numerous are the posthumous museums and memorials devoted exclusively to one artist, architect or author and designed to preserve or artificially reconstruct the namesake's original working or living conditions.
