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I think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it's to be true and not cover up the cracks.

It's really easy to project this whole ideology of what being an artiste is, and I'm just not down with intellectualizing it. I just think, if you feel like doing something, then do it.

I make a good living and I've never looked at myself as being an artiste.

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

It is important to know that what I do is not artistic. I am just a film-maker. I live how I live and I do what I do, which is recording moments of my life as I move ahead. And I do it because I am compelled to. Necessity, not artistry, is the true line you can follow in my life and work.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

The question is not... if art is enough to fulfill my life, but if I am true to the path I have set for myself, if I am the best I can be in the things I do. Am I living up to the reasons I became a singer in the first place?

I create for artistic intent only and do everything from life.

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.

Being an artist is not easy - I have always said that to the students I have taught over the years. It's a huge sacrifice.