Music Interviews
Hildur Guðnadóttir: “That’s when things come alive”
Alan Menken: “Always be in love with the process”
David Newman: “You’re bonded to it”
Bill Conti: “I’m writing it for emotional reaction”
Ólafur Arnalds: “It’s not the end of the journey”
Ludwig Göransson: “I’m building a puzzle”
Yann Tiersen: “Music is not language”
Jeff Mills: “You’re only limited by your imagination”
Nils Frahm: “Everything can be used for the music”
Jóhann Jóhannsson: “Does it speak simply and directly?”
Giorgio Moroder: “I was always interested in the hits”
Hans Zimmer: “You are forever in that dream world”
Alexander Ebert: “I was constantly in trouble”
Nick Cave: “I don’t think that people want to be like me”
Life
- “The more experience you have, the more time you’ve spent on this earth, the more regrets you accumulate. It’s normal. You can’t do everything right, nobody’s perfect. But if you think too much about that, you’re not here. You have to make some efforts to stay open-minded.”Viggo MortensenUS, Actor
- “When you’re young so many things happen and it’s really hard, but you have to fight. Sometimes to get what you want you need to have a really strong past to make sure that you become a warrior and you are not scared about anything and you fight through the night.”Olivier RousteingFrance, Fashion Designer
- “Writing itself should be so extreme, so wild, and so much fun that it doesn’t matter whether or not you ever sell the book.”Chuck PalahniukUS, Author
- “We're not having to run from predatory animals like we did for hundreds of thousands of years before. So now we have to make up new activities to fulfill those emotional needs. There is a certain something about the ever-present danger of death that makes living so great.”Laird HamiltonUS, Surfer
- “Belief is very important. It’s like when you are riding a horse and you want it to go to the left, you look to the left first and then pull the horse’s head. As a human being it is the same thing: wherever you put your attention is probably where you are going to find yourself.”Colin FarrellIreland, Actor
- “I try not to look back. I’m looking forward. I’m worried more about what I’m going to do next week than I am what I did last week. There are too many things to do. Looking back is for everybody else.”Neil YoungCanada, Musician
- “I don’t want to only do what I know how to do. I want to be pushed somewhere else.”Catherine DeneuveFrance, Actress
- “At what point do you feel you’ve achieved it and you can move on? I think you usually have to start thinking, ‘So what’s next?’”Stuart VeversUK, Fashion Designer
- “It’s important to say no – especially earlier in your career – because life is short and you want to be proud of things that you have done, not ashamed of them.”Peter DinklageUS, Actor
- “In your life there’s a moment when the door opens and you need to walk through the door then. You can’t say then, “Well, I’ll go through it two years from now. I’ll do it, I’ll save up some money...” Because by then the door will be closed.”David SedarisUS, Author
- “Being creative and keeping your brain occupied is very sensible because if you don’t you die, slowly. Sometimes I feel tired and think I ought to give it up, I don’t want to just retire. I enjoy it all.”Anthony HopkinsWales, Actor
- “Failure is just something you have to go through on your own. Nothing can prepare you for it, just like a broken heart. I thought about folding, but I’m not a quitter. I’m not going to quit.”Spike LeeUS, Film Director
- “Follow the things you love! Follow the things that you are intensely passionate about. Follow the things that you like to do, which often to others might seem unimportant.”Daniel LibeskindPoland, Architect
- “I think you have to slow down a little bit. But I am just trying to make work; I am just out there making work. I take care of myself so that I can survive. I used to not take care of myself so well, but now I do.”Larry ClarkUS, Film Director
- “The recognition of luck is extraordinarily important — as well as making the best of it and creating to the best of your capabilities on that one opportunity you’re given so that it doesn’t end up in the museum of errors.”Robert RichardsonUS, Cinematographer
- “It’s a huge peace to allow yourself to be vulnerable. You gain a sense of freedom and understanding and forgiveness for being human. Instead of trying to control things and make it the way you want them, you have to be more open.”Brie LarsonUS, Actress
- “I am tireless, I’m relatively fearless. It’s hard to hear “no” all the time. It can be tough; you have to have the stomach for it.”Christine VachonUS, Film Producer
- “I used to tease the other kids because I played better than them. Then my father said, ‘Come here. Don’t do this with the kids, because God gave you the gift to play football. You didn’t do anything. You have to respect people, be a good person. From now on, you must be this example.’”PeléBrazil, Football Player
- “I’m trying to not play it safe. I learn more when I fail than when I succeed, so if I push myself to do something that’s really difficult, I could fail and I’ll learn a lot. But if I don’t fail, then I’ll be in a great movie. I hope to be the kind of actor that isn’t always great.”Jessica ChastainUS, Actor
- “I don’t regret anything. I feel that I’ve made what I would call mistakes. But everything you do is a part of you. And you get something from it. The idea and excitement of being in these situations and places — they are more than just memories, they inform your life.”Al PacinoUS, Actor
- “I think all actors have to be dreamers. I think every citizen of every kind of society has to dream. If you stop dreaming, it’s over.”Bruce DernUS, Actor
- “You have to open yourself. Just as in life you have to be open to other people, to other perspectives — it’s the same thing when you write. That’s what religion’s about, that’s what literature’s about, it’s what life’s about: the stories that you build.”Yann MartelCanada, Author
- “Part of being a designer is to fail every day, to try things that don’t work out. In a way, every project fails every day until it succeeds! That’s what the iterative process of design is about. Timing in many ways is key.”Yves BéharSwitzerland, Industrial Designer
- “The truth. The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. And that’s it! May it be ugly, may it be beautiful, may it be perverse, may it be all of those things. That’s it, I can’t lie; it is what it is, unabashed, naked. I expect that of myself, that’s for sure.”Steve McQueenUK, Film Director
- “I learned by doing. The rest is doing experiments and testing and not giving up. If something is not satisfying start again, turn everything upside down and find a new formula for printing. Everything is learning by doing.”Gerhard SteidlGermany, Publisher
- “The journey of an artist is a journey of discovery and some engagement with the nature of material, with bodily things and all that has led me to this place. I’m really interested in that as a process because the process moves you in directions that you couldn’t rationally put there.”Anish KapoorUK, Artist
- “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! If you’re feeling that, maybe other people need that to.”Elizabeth PeytonUS, Artist
- “I was always trying to innovate; I don’t like repetition. Time is something that changes every moment, it’s never repetitive — I try to follow this example.”Gabriel OrozcoMexico, Artist
- “Everybody is amazing at something — some people write music, some people are leaders, some people raise children, some people cook food. If you find what it is that you can offer to your fellow.”Nick OffermanUS, Actor
- “When I was training as a ballet dancer, I know that I was often tired or in pain, but you just work through it. You go home crying and your parents almost want you to quit but then you just do it. And I use that stamina now as an actress because it’s normally quite uncomfortable to make films.”Alicia VikanderSweden, Actress
- “Just about anything is possible if you can find the map or the blueprint to get there. I think you’re only limited by your imagination.”Jeff MillsUS, DJ and Producer
- “I think you get more confident as you get older. You realize what your strengths and weaknesses are and you’re more okay with your weaknesses and you value your strengths more. I look forward to being 50 and I’m hoping that I’m as confident as some of the people that I look up to.”Elisabeth MossUS, Actress
- “There is a thing called discipline. If you really want to do it, you’ve got to put in the work. Work, work, work, work. Practice, practice, practice, practice.”Kevin KlineUS, Actor
- “Life is struggle. Life is about struggle. You’re not supposed to be happy all the time. It’s about challenging yourself and pushing yourself, you know? You become content. That’s not happiness.”Sam RockwellUS, Actor
- “I think an ambition as a performer, and maybe even in life, is to become less afraid. Some boundaries are necessary of course and some are accepted, but the ones that I don’t want, I want to remove.”Willem DafoeUS, Actor
- “Sometimes when you lose faith and you understand that something will never be possible the way that you dreamed, but you keep trying, suddenly one thing flips and everything re-accommodates. It totally flows. You don’t give up — and suddenly it’s almost a transcendental thing.”Alejandro IñárrituMexico, Film Director
- “If people don’t like the pictures, I don’t care. To me, there’s only one point of view: that’s mine.”Harry BensonUK, Photographer
- “I think the key to having a successful career is to find the thing you do well and do it again and again for the rest of your life. But I’m interested in expanding my language as an artist and as a composer. And I try to expand it with every project.”Jóhann JóhannssonIceland, Composer
- “Life is confounding and who knows what’s around the next corner. But in many ways uncertainty can be exhilarating—there’s a lot of freedom in it. It would be a shame to waste our snippet of time on this planet being afraid.”Deborah LandauUS, Poet
- “Wherever any of us have been wounded, if we dive into what those wounds are, if we go down into and do the hard work within those wounds, we’ll actually find ourselves, we’ll find our real giftedness, a sincere, true giftedness.”Andrew GarfieldUK, Actor