The Talks
Victoria Monét: “Go forth with faith”
Ms. Monet, as a Grammy winning singer and songwriter, do you remember the first time you wrote lyrics that really moved you?
I don’t think it was the lyrics necessarily, but I think I felt really moved and like I’d really achieved something when I went into the studio for the first time to record. It felt like a really important moment for me as a songwriter, being able to hear my voice back and make little changes, stacking harmonies… I still have that recording to this day.
You got your start as a lyricist writing poems as a kid, right? It seems like songwriting is something that came naturally to you.
I wouldn't say that words always came easily to me, because I was actually really shy growing up! Or maybe the thoughts came easily, but the way to say it was not always easy. I would always be deciding if I should or shouldn't say something, I never had the courage to say it the way that I want to say it. So songwriting has definitely been an outlet for me to express myself and have a diary, a place to share what I'm feeling over the years. That’s always how I’ve approached it, so it’s interesting to listen back and think, like, “Why was I so pressed about that situation? I really feel disconnected from it now!” (Laughs) But mostly, I’m glad I have my writing as a resource.
“I’m surviving. I do everything I can to speak out and make sure that I keep my humanity.”
“I think all the roles of my career have presented me with opportunities for my own personal growth. Roles that really push you out of your comfort zone, it really helps you to grow, and it then brings you greater capacity for love within yourself and love for others.”
“If it sounds right, then I’m happy, no matter how I got there. I just want to make beautiful music.”
“I thought for a long time as the business grew, “Is this something I want to do for the rest of my life?” And I knew it was not. When I left Calvin Klein, I had done almost everything I wanted to do in terms of creation of products. And re-doing was less fun.”
“We are consumed with existence, mortgages, jobs, cars, houses. It is nice to allow the imagination room to breathe again and see life as something that is spectacular and magic.”
“I think it comes from my desire as a kid to do something artistic that would amaze people, you know? I wanted to do nothing less than that. Those are the projects that I love: figuring out what might just be possible but hasn't been done yet.”- “I knew what felt instinctively right for me, and I pursued that throughout my entire career. It’s the way I live; it’s the way I work. Everything that I’ve done and everything that I have is an extension of my personal taste.”
“It's important for a novelist to use the imagination like a musician, a composer or a painter would, in a kind of non-logical way. I think it’s very important for me to not just become a kind of intellectual writer.”
“I think a big part of writing comes out of an attempt to understand yourself. I just always felt whole when I was writing. I felt this kind of beautiful privacy that I never felt in any other way.”
“You better make every moment count. Live your life now; start in the morning. You mustn’t sit around waiting to die.”
“When I was younger I used to have more anxiousness to obtain things. But there are moments in which you obtain those things and then you relax.”
“From the beginning, I wanted to protect the clothes themselves from fashion, and at the same time protect the woman’s body. I wanted people to keep on wearing my clothes for at least 10 years or more.”
“The thing I’ve gathered more of over the years is a self-confidence that’s to do with having done work that people have liked.”
“If I should be fortunate enough to make another film, it would be exactly what I have settled upon as what is right for me. I feel that these days, I understand a little more what the cinema is.”- “I try to look at things more from the perspective that everything is happening for us, not to us. And so whatever challenges that were occurring at the time, perhaps they were happening just so this moment could happen.”
“I’ve learned not to look at sales reports. I used to, but if I had listened to sales reports at the beginning, I would have given up on things that are some of our biggest successes now.”
“Art is something that you do – you can't not do it. If I made money doing it, I would do it; if I didn't make any money, I would do it.”
“Although sometimes I feel tired and think I ought to give it up, I don’t want to just retire. No, I enjoy it all and you just keep going until the day comes when you can’t do it anymore.”
“The game of basketball means everything. This is love. Definitely love. I had to practice and I had to make sacrifices, but basketball has given me so much.”
“To do something no one else has ever done, it’s satisfying, but the thing is nobody else is really playing the game of free solo climbing, so it's easy to win when no one else plays, you know?”
“If I pass away one day, I am happy because I tried to do my best. My sport allowed me to do so much.”
“I have a responsibility that lasts a lifetime with my children. They know that I love my work, and they know how I go about it. And I hope that they find work that they love, because nothing can compare to watching your child succeed.”
“If I want to make a movie and I can at 62, I will. But I want to leave the ring triumphant. I want this guy, this guy you see right now, I want him to be the guy who makes the movies, not the autumn dude.”
“There is something in leaving this place better than where you have left it, working on yourself, doing things with other people, there is something in that that feels right, deep in your core. I go with that.”- “Most people make art and movies as a job and if a lot of people go to see it they make money and that is their sign of success. I am not making judgment here, but their goal is strictly business-oriented. I don't do this as a business.”
“My goal when I’m in front of an audience is to perform the piece and fill it with meaning. On stage, I concentrate on rationality and empathy, since the singer must feel a certain amount of emotion, but not too much.”
“I think it’s really important to not be afraid of failure and to push yourself to try things and jump in the cold water.”
“One day, if you have a little bit of talent and a lot of hard work, you’re going to find out who you are.”
“Over the course of my life, I have sacrificed love, private life, and time for me, all on the altar of work. But I have also created an empire that is important for so many.”
“I hope the scale of my works is way bigger than what you see. I hope they live in you.”
“When you are in a very, very tough moment of a day and have a lot of frustration because nothing is happening right—but you don’t give up—and suddenly that happens! That’s almost a transcendental thing.”
“I discovered early on that I’m the kind of person that experiments and makes mistakes but then it’s all worth it because once in a blue moon it hits home.”
“I dreamed of winning the Olympics since I was nine years old. That was definitely the most memorable race of my career. But the next day I woke up, and I wanted to win the next race.”- “I’m 80 years old now, and little by little over your lifetime you begin to understand things that you didn’t understand earlier.”
“You’ve got to actually write it. You’ve got to actually sit there and do it, it can’t just be about the experience. Lots of people have fantastic experiences in life, but don’t have any inclination to put pen to paper.”
“You don’t think of your roles as achievements. You think of the roles you play, the paintings you’ve made. I mean, imagine an actor saying, “I don’t want to go on anymore because I can’t do better than the last movie I made. I might as well quit now.” We’d call that resting on your laurels.”
“The bottom line in the end is to grab the heart of the audience and talk to them directly and tell them: "I share with you my soul and my heart."”
“I’ve been very fortunate, and I don’t know why, but my shoes don’t have a special time period. I don’t design them with that in mind but it happens: timelessness. I have been absolutely gifted by that.”
“when we finally put a piece together for the first time, seeing it all together, when it actually works… The excitement in the room is something I’ll never forget. It feels like a very powerful moment to be part of.”
“I think the final circle in being an artist is connecting, making some conversation to the world you’re in. I think if you have that feeling of why you need to do something, you’ll find a way. And I think that really takes you forward!”
Alessandra Sanguinetti: “They live within me”
Ms. Sanguinetti, as a Magnum photographer, what is it that makes you want to photograph someone: Their look or their aesthetic? Their personality? Their behavior? Something else?
I think it's impossible for me to say. It's intangible, it’s just like when you fall in love, you don't know why… I can't define it. It just happens, like this crackling of energy or this magnet that you have towards somebody — or an animal. I’ve loved animals since I was a child, and I still feel exactly the same way. I have so much empathy for animals, I feel intensely about them. Some of my first photographs were of horses and dogs on the farm when I was around nine or 10.
One of my favourite photos of yours is of a fawn curled up on the ground, it feels so tender and intimate.
You know, I remember being six years old and walking on the sidewalk in Buenos Aires, trying to figure out how not to step on the ants on the sidewalk, because I was just afraid I was killing them with every step I took. I still feel that so intensely with animals. It happens with people and relationships too, I just really try not to hurt people. I think about that humanity very deeply.
Jonny Greenwood: “It’s nice to be struggling”
Yannick Alléno: “Keep searching for more”
Jack Antonoff: “It’s a lived life together”
Jeremy Chan: “It feels very free”
Joanna Van Son: “Painting became my anchor”
Thomas Houseago: “There’s a form of survival in that”
Inez & Vinoodh: “What is reality?”
Autumn Durald Arkapaw: “It’s an out of body experience”
