I wanted to be as invisible as possible as an artist. I wanted to differentiate between myself and who I'm writing about.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've always been interested in how fast-moving our identity is and that I've never been able to pin down who I truly am. That inspires me to write, because I feel like that cements me a bit, in that I find my identity in being an artist.
Something in me was instinctively drawn to the life of a misunderstood, brilliant and wilful artist. I wanted to become one.
When you know who you are as an artist and you have your own identity and got it figured out it helps you know what to write about.
In my career, I really set out not to develop too strong a persona so that you wouldn't have a hard time imagining me in any given role. I wanted to pleasantly confuse the audience on who I was.
I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live. Unfortunately, its not the way the music business works. If you don't create some kind of public image, it gets created for you.
That's part of the requirement for me to be an artist is that you're trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life.
For writers and artists, it's always a balancing act between wanting to be the center of attention and wanting to be invisible and watch what's going on.
If I try to think objectively about myself and my work, I would say I want to be intuitive and distinctive.
I feel, as an artist, I should be able to express who I am and the things I come from, and the places I want to also be.
I know who I am and what I'm doing in my life and what I've accomplished and continue to accomplish as a performer, as a writer, as an artist, as a person, as a human being.