I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is how do we make people pay for music? What if we started asking, how do we let people pay for music?
Amanda PalmerRead
There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to university, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being an artist is a personal declaration, not bound by external validation or traditional paths.
Amanda Palmer's quote emphasizes that the journey to becoming a true artist is unique to each individual and does not rely on conventional markers of success such as education or fame. Instead, one becomes an artist by recognizing and affirming their own identity in that role, and by evoking meaningful emotions in others through their work.
Themes
ArtistCreativityIdentityExpressionValidation
In practice
Example use cases
In an art class to inspire students to believe in themselves.
More from Amanda Palmer
All quotes →In other words, let's give our young women the right weapons to fight with as they charge naked into battle, instead of ordering them to get back in the house and put some goddamn clothes on.
Amanda PalmerRead
Similar quotes
I never know what I am writing. The moment you know what you're writing, you're writing nothing worth reading.
Richard FlanaganRead
When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I've got to draw. And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything.
Ellsworth KellyRead
Poems are like dreams: in them you put what you don't know you know.
Adrienne RichRead
I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.
Annette BeningRead
Actors are the jockeys of literature. Others supply the horses, the plays, and we simply make them run.
Ralph RichardsonRead
I think, with age, you learn that it comes in bursts and you've got no control over it. I'm not one of those people who says, 'I've got to write a song every day.' I just store up ideas, and really I have to wait until it finds me; I know when I'm ready to write. It used to frustrate me, but it doesn't any more. It's just how it is.
Paul WellerRead