My message to little kids who aspire to be anything they want to be is to listen to their parents.
I have the belief that a person and his art should have one direction; your work should be a synonym for your person - the two shouldn't be separate.
Good art is born from knowing yourself deeply: Your art cannot hide how much you have discovered about yourself.
As an artist, the most important feeling is loneliness. So when I say artists need to isolate themselves from society this is what I mean: You have to look for that feeling of loneliness again. Only this way can you have something that is purely your own.
I found everything so remote but, at the same time, familiar when I occasionally looked into the mountains, rocks, pine trees and plums depicted in old literati paintings. My innermost feeling which was awakened by the same mountains, rocks, pine trees and plums has been totally and utterly changed. Moreover, like an apparition, it hides deep down in my vessels. The very trees and rocks have become the storage of memories and emotions from various eras. Forced by the rapid change of time and perspective, I cannot help but feel urged to face up to these things once again.
Art isn't a science or a job; it's alive.
Jesus isn't a God who stayed on the mountaintop - he's a Savior who came down and lived and worked with the people.
I hold another creed, which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention, but in which I delight, and to which I cling, for it extends hope to all; it makes eternity a rest - a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last; with this creed, revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low. I live in calm, looking to the end.
I've learned that I work best when I'm entirely naked. The recording process was done that way.
For many of us, the road is a difficult one, but the path is always there for us to follow, no matter how many times we may fall.