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To live as an artist requires hard work or some extraordinary good fortune to come your way.

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.

I think it's harder than ever to be an artist. I think that you end up, especially as a middle-aged person, you pay such big consequences for saying, 'I'm just going to devote my life to making art,' or 'I'm going to devote my life to writing novels.' You end up with no resources.

Any time you're stepping out on a limb as an artist, it's scary, especially when you have a lot of success. When you're reaching a lot of people, the masses, it's easy to stay in that niche, you know? Especially when you're making a lot of money and you know there's a formula, it's easy to stay in that rut.

It's harder to be a success, globally, and be artistic. Harder to have that balance than just to be artistic when nobody understands you.

It's true that there are people who live the idea of being an artist, as opposed to the idea of making art.

The world doesn't need an artist who shows reality as it is.

I think that, to be an artist, you have to have a big enough ego to believe that people out in the world want to see what you think is a good idea. And if you don't have that sense of ego, then the minute that idea goes into the world, self-doubt kicks in.

We don't know why we should be artists, but we have many reasons why we can't be.