I don't like records that are the same from beginning to end, that are too styled and slick. Everything is so designed and airbrushed and Botoxed, it makes us think, 'Oh, everybody's perfect except me. Everything's smooth except me.' But nothing is smooth.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the beauty of imperfection in art and life, challenging the notion of unrealistic perfection.
Bjork's quote reflects her disdain for polished, overly perfected art that hides the raw and authentic aspects of life. She suggests that such idealized portrayals can create a false narrative of perfection, leading individuals to feel inadequate. By acknowledging that 'nothing is smooth,' she encourages embracing flaws and the genuine messiness of existence, promoting a deeper connection with reality.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of creativity and authenticity in art.
I've always had as many powerful, creative ladies in my life as I have men, and you could probably describe some of those relationships as romantic. I think everyone's bisexual to some degree or another; it's just a question of whether or not you choose to recognise it and embrace it. Personally, I think choosing between men and women is like choosing between cake and ice cream. You'd be daft not to try both when there are so many different flavours.
My first album didn't come out until I was 27, which in pop years is late, you know. But when it came time to arrange it, I became a kid in a toy shop. I had a harp and a saxophone quartet and a symphony orchestra. I went berserk for a time.
What comes first? The melody, always. It's all about singing the melodies live in my head. They go in circles. I guess I'm quite conservative and romantic about the power of melodies. I try not to record them on my Dictaphone when I first hear them. If I forget all about it and it pops up later on, then I know it's good enough. I let my subconscious do the editing for me.
Living in a capital in Europe but still surrounded by mountains and ocean, my relationship to music was strongest walking to school and back. I would sing to myself and very quickly started mapping out my melodies to landscapes - at the time I just thought it was very matter of fact, a common thing to do.
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second, and you can hop from one place to another. It's a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.
The best book, like the best speech, will do it all - make us laugh, think, cry and cheer - preferably in that order.
I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.
I am not an actress. I can only play me - on and off the screen.
Art, whose honesty must work through artifice, cannot avoid cheating truth.
Never are voices so beautiful as on a winter's evening, when dusk almost hides the body, and they seem to issue from nothingness with a note of intimacy seldom heard by day.
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