“A real artist doesn't need friends or family.”— Ben York Jones, Michael Mohan, Leroy O'Neil, Zachary Ray Sherman, imdb.com
“We need to reality-check our expectations. Just because we don't sit down and channel the great American novel in one week doesn't mean we won't be good writers. And we need to remember that behind every 'naturally gifted' person is normally a huge amount of work, dedication and commitment.”— Brené Brown, amazon.com
“Become great the boring way. The obsessive way. Watch 100 stars be born that aren't you. Learn to be cool with it.”— John Mayer, instagram.com
“There is too much motivation to become a brand and not enough to become great at something.”— John Mayer, instagram.com
“I always wanted to be a writer when I was younger, but I didn't think it was ever possible, and so I didn't take it seriously or actually even really think about it. This happens, I think, in a lot of fields, including fashion and media and TV, things that seem exciting and far away when you're youn…”— Choire Sicha, fashionista.com
“I was an art dealer for a number of years, for a friend, and after that I was blogging for fun on the side. I was co-writing a blog with a friend who lived on the West Coast and learning how to write by writing in public — which, actually, I sort of take for granted now. That was a new thing, then.…”— Choire Sicha, fashionista.com
“If I’m not inspired to write, I don’t. Whether it’s me as a singer or a dancer or a writer or a painter or a filmmaker or on Instagram or a mixtape, everything I do is coming out of a real need. I think Joni Mitchell is the one who said that singing, laughing, and crying come up out of the same need…”— Erykah Badu, vulture.com
“People are willing to pose nude for artists they don’t even know – color me cautious, I think it seems sketchy.”— Unknown, tcat.tc
“Ed's not a guy who goes, "What do you think?" Ed's in his own thing and he's a star athlete.”— John Mayer, rollingstone.com
“I realized not long ago that I'm done debating my own merits: "No, I am very good.”— John Mayer, rollingstone.com
“It's hard to separate art from artists so transgender musicians will never be mainstream until transpeople are looked at as notable as maybe redheads.”— Willam Belli, enkiquotes.com
“You'd think people would be wary of spilling to a writer. You'd think they'd know that we're essentially birds of carrion, picking over the corpses of dead affairs and forgotten arguments to recycle them into our work.”— Ruth Ware, amazon.com
“I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations. If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And…”— David Bowie, amazon.com
“Throughout my 20s and most of my 30s, I was convinced I was never going to make it as a writer.”— Roxane Gay, nytimes.com
“It’s like this dog in Japan. The dog had an owner. And the owner would go to the train every day. And the dog would follow the owner to the train and then be there at the exact time the owner came back from work off the train. The dog would be waiting on the train platform. Then one day the owner di…”— John Mayer, youtube.com
“Men often wanted Mitchell to be a wife, a muse, a siren, or a star. Instead, they got a genius, and one especially suited to deconstructing their fantasies of her.”— Dan Chiasson, newyorker.com
“Mitchell writes about emotional information: who controls it, and how it is squandered or hoarded, withheld or weaponized. This requires some reconnaissance, which for Mitchell involves falling in and out of love, over and over—not so much a research method as a form of self-surgery.”— Dan Chiasson, newyorker.com
“Not to mention the many, many yet unrecognized but hardworking talents. I pray everyone climbs a step beyond their wildest dreams.”— tablo, twitter.com
“I told my therapist ‘I’m not really a person, I’m more just a collection of ideas.”— John Mayer, twitter.com