Often I don't know what the song means until it's finished. Sometimes months later. I don't think that's bad. It implies that I don't know what I'm doing but-I think if you're able to follow your instincts, then that's knowing what you're doing.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the creative process and the importance of intuition in art.
David Byrne reflects on the nature of creativity, suggesting that the meaning of a song may not be apparent until it is completed, sometimes taking months to understand. He expresses that this ambiguity is not negative; rather, it highlights the role of instinct in the creative process, asserting that following one's instincts is a valid form of knowledge in artistic expression.
In practice
An artist can share this quote during a gallery opening to inspire others about the nature of artistic expression.
Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can't bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke.
I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
Great art is indefinable but that's all right; it exists anyway.
I aspire to a poetry of great formal integrity, deep passion and high intellect, and I have many models for how to do that.
The actual making of a record is the most exciting part of this business.
When I'm about to train a new opera, I first listen to how Jussi Björling did it. His voice was unique and it's his path that I want to follow. I would more than anything else wish that people compared me with Jussi Björling. It's like so I'm striving to sing.
Poetry is not truth, it is the resurrection of presences.
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.
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