I love movies where you can sense that the director risked biting off more than they can chew.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was in this public high school in Princeton, and it had this topnotch jazz program - if you were a...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I handle screenings and award ceremonies really badly.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE It's interesting when you wind up distilling all your ambitions and your goals and dreams into o...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE The greatest thing has been that projects that were pipe dreams before 'Whiplash' are now fe...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE It's easy to show terrible people's behavior on screen, and we all just kind of nod and go, ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE 'La La Land' is about the city I live in. It's about the music that I grew up playing; i...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I like movies that are specific. Movies that home in on a very specific subculture, a specific disci...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Nothing is guaranteed to last, so you should just enjoy it as it happens.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I didn't feel the kind of joy every day playing drums that I thought you were supposed to feel.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was a writer for hire. I wrote to pay the bills.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE By the end of high school, I had this fork-in-the-road moment where part of me considered going to v...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE One interesting thing about jazz, or art in general, but jazz especially is such an individual art f...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE My version of a stress dream is, really, showing up on a concert stage with a drum set and not knowi...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I remember moving out to L.A. straight after college and just starting to try to write scripts and t...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE My motivation for being a good drummer was born out of fear, which, in a way, seems so antithetical ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I guess I'm kind of interested in that elusive search for a bond between life and work and betwe...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I'm predisposed to never be in pure celebration mode.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I actually grew up wanting to be a filmmaker. I wanted to make movies, and music was a detour, almos...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There are a lot of musicians in my life. But movies came first for me. That was my original passion.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I like a set to be a happy place, where people can feel free to experiment.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don't come tru...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE When you're trying to paint a portrait of a very specific world, you're trying to show what ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I remember when I first met Jason Reitman with the 'Whiplash' script; he quickly became a me...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I hadn't seen that many movies that really go deep enough into the fears of playing music or the...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was a jazz drummer, and it was my life for a while: what I lived and breathed every day.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I think, especially living in L.A., it's very easy to get wrapped up in weekend announcements an...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE As a drummer, you're always fighting for a level that you never quite attain.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE In some ways, jazz is the most precise of art forms and the loosest in the sense that it's all a...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE The go-to reflex all over Hollywood is still likeability. I've always had a problem with it beca...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE It's certainly no coincidence that big bands became the entertainment of the army in WWI and WWI...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE If there's a good review, I'll skip over the headline, but I always find the bad reviews and...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE When someone is playing drums, they aren't actually moving around a space; they're just movi...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE People like Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, you look at them playing music, and it's just like lookin...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I find L.A. kind of romantic, actually. As a movie junkie, it's a city that was built by the mov...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE My first movie was totally improvised.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE If you're an artist, you want to draw from real life; you want to draw from experiences, emotion...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I don't think of 'Macbeth' as the villain. I don't think of 'King Lear' as t...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE What I love about jazz is that it's full of legends, full of myths. It's an oral history bec...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I remember being inspired myself when smaller films, whether it's 'Beasts' or 'Winte...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Whiplash' was just a lucky kind of convergence of events in that I'd been trying to get a bi...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE The end result of my personal story is that I became a really good drummer, and I know myself well e...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE The first thing I did as a child was draw. I wanted to make animated movies. I think Disney's &#...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE If you look at 'West Side Story,' a lot of those numbers are actually pretty cutty, but the ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was always pretty decent at fast stick work or doing stuff that seems impressive that's not re...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was always pretty decent at fast stick work or doing stuff that seems impressive that's not re...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I love being in the editing room and playing with tempo and with the rhythm of shots.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There's something very particular about the kind of rage you feel when you're alone in a pra...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There's something very particular about the kind of rage you feel when you're alone in a pra...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE First time that I cried at a work of art was at a drum solo that I saw. A drummer named Winard Harpe...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I love the idea of using film language similarly to how musicians use music - combining images and s...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE In a weird way, I'm always going to ground myself. I'm an insecure kind of pessimist, but I&...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE 'Whiplash' scared me. I feel you should only do projects that scare you to some degree. I ge...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Certainly, my manager Gary Ungar was the first person to give me any attention and hustle for me. Th...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE At the upper echelon of musicians in general, I guess performers in general, you have to have this k...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was a kid living in New Jersey, who - I'd wanted to make movies since I was a little kid, so t...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There were so many specific things from high school jazz band that I remembered: the conductor searc...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE People aren't inherently sympathetic.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE What's great about musicals is their energy and go-for-brokeness - stopping the story to sing an...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I tend to latch on to things and not let go.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE If you want to make a movie, there may be many forces trying to pull you down, but really, a lot of ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE It's a little difficult when something goes from being an utter obsession - a thing where your s...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I love the idea of thinking of cinema as not that far from music. A lot of my favourite movie makers...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Mozart was born Mozart. Charlie Parker was born Charlie Parker.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I guess art itself is insane. Its actual function is rarely clear, and yet people give their hearts ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE My dad is a big jazz fan, and that was the reason I first got into jazz.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Before 'Whiplash,' I'd had a string of failed scripts. I'd pour my blood, sweat and ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I wanted to look at the mentality that can breed that sort of intensity, that kind of cutthroat, pre...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Certainly, I've loved musicals for a while, so I did some short films in college that had musica...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE 'Whiplash' was always the song I hated the most because it's a song designed to screw wi...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE It's a weird thing where, especially in jazz, you have to totally mention cutting sessions and p...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I think there is something to be said for not coddling people and not accepting good as good enough.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I don't like the idea the viewer can kind of sit there and go, 'Make me like this person....
DAMIEN CHAZELLE As delicate as 'Guy and Madeline' was, it was important that 'Whiplash' come off as ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE As a kid, I was just writing scripts and taking whatever film classes I could in college.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I would break a lot of cymbals. You whack the cymbals hard enough, and they will crack in half. Drum...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I want to do an American 'Umbrellas of Cherbourg.'
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Certainly, grades only matter so much when you're in Hollywood. But I became an utterly motivate...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I'm too self-serious for a comedy.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Real practice means working on stuff you're not good at. Real practice is about butting your hea...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I do truly believe that the smallest stories can wind up being the biggest because it's through ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I like the idea of working my way up. I don't feel impatient to immediately jump into something ...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There's something about some of my favorite musicals that they put me in a sort of heightened st...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE There are no large-scale original musicals being made right now. They're all Broadway adaptation...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I never desperately wanted to be a jazz drummer. If anything, I was motivated a lot by fear. Fear of...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE I was really trying to sell to people who hate jazz: to make a case for the art form as youthful and...
DAMIEN CHAZELLE Sometimes when you're drunk you can see better.
DAMIEN HIRST I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a soci...
DAMIEN HIRST Each song is a small universe to me. Each song has a story of its own. Each has a full life to expre...
DAMIEN RICE Being able to walk out of the studio after a week of intense recording and jump into a cold sea and ...
DAMIEN RICE I just don't like to do a lot of the normal things expected of other artists. I'm not trying...
DAMIEN RICE I was on paper earning more money and having more success than I'd ever had. And it was also the...
DAMIEN RICE I opened up every can of worms I could. I got to the place where I would peel back one layer, and th...
DAMIEN RICE Leonard Cohen has a way with words and with humor that remind me to lighten up, which I appreciate v...
DAMIEN RICE I want to keep a thread between the studio and the stage, and I want to flow more easily from one to...
DAMIEN RICE There's a Nina Simone record that I love, 'Live at Vine Street,' and she sings flat on i...
DAMIEN RICE I have an abundance of enthusiasm; however, it would be foolish to think I can predict a future that...
DAMIEN RICE Music enables me to cleanse and shed the things that I feel are holding me back from growing, or gro...
DAMIEN RICE I'm not the guy that wants to be famous and make loads of money and sell loads of records. I don...
DAMIEN RICE I am really curious about life, about why we are all here. I notice my skin is ageing, things are ch...
DAMIEN RICE I don't have a craving for money. And I don't have a craving for fame.
DAMIEN RICE I've learned very, very, very clearly that money does not equal happiness or security, either.
DAMIEN RICE Everyone is capable of everything.
DAMIEN RICE I don't want to stand in front of a whole lot of fakeys. If I'm going to meet someone and sa...
DAMIEN RICE Inside, I've got a real purist desire and dream about the music. I like the idea of being able t...
DAMIEN RICE The more I push myself to really live and really experience things and step outside of my comfort zo...
DAMIEN RICE When I started off in music, I started with a real innocence, a real love for the instrument, the wr...
DAMIEN RICE The best restriction I learned was getting into the habit of doing something, even if I didn't f...
DAMIEN RICE I do not want to be a robot, a cog in society who answers 'yes' because 'yes' is con...
DAMIEN RICE A kite needs to be tied down in order to fly. I learned how important restrictions can sometimes be ...
DAMIEN RICE I live with myself. I wake up with myself, I eat, and I take a dump with myself. I don't see any...
DAMIEN RICE Sometimes you have to step away from what you love in order to learn how to love it again.
DAMIEN RICE When I'm in a place like Iceland, I allow myself to take a little more time to divert off onto o...
DAMIEN RICE I want to get comfortable with my insecurities until I am no longer insecure. I want to be comfortab...
DAMIEN RICE I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work.
DAMIEN HIRST A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you s...
DAMIEN HIRST People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really...
DAMIEN HIRST No, I don't believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be lik...
DAMIEN HIRST I always look at money not as a motivating factor but as an element in the composition. You can'...
DAMIEN HIRST People always say that my work is sensational or shocking but there are truly shocking things you co...
DAMIEN HIRST Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's ...
DAMIEN HIRST But the answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing t...
DAMIEN HIRST You need a big ego to be an artist.
DAMIEN HIRST Kids are naturally gifted at art from a very young age. The problem is when they get older and becom...
DAMIEN HIRST But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. ...
DAMIEN HIRST The difference between art about death and actual death is that one's a celebration and the othe...
DAMIEN HIRST 'Painting like a child' isn't a negative for me... it's something only great artists...
DAMIEN HIRST It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.
DAMIEN HIRST It's good to have a title that's not just one word. If you're gonna title it, you might ...
DAMIEN HIRST The goal in life is to be solid, whereas the way that life works is totally fluid, so you can never ...
DAMIEN HIRST I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don't think art is good at looking he...
DAMIEN HIRST Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about grav...
DAMIEN HIRST Great art - or good art - is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I don'...
DAMIEN HIRST I'd love to interview Bill Clinton. I know that might be a little boring, but he's so intere...
DAMIEN FAHEY Personally, I'm not into reality shows - I can't even name a reality show that I was a reall...
DAMIEN FAHEY But it's like the horror of being in a studio with a blank canvas. I used to always run out of i...
DAMIEN HIRST Prison is designed to separate, isolate, and alienate you from everyone and everything. You're not a...
DAMIEN ECHOLS If you pray for rain, don't be surprised if you're struck by lightning.
DAMIEN CANNON I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life.
DAMIEN HIRST So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad...
DAMIEN HIRST In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray...
DAMIEN HIRST I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. An...
DAMIEN HIRST Service... Giving what you don't have to give. Giving when you don't need to give. Giving because...
DAMIEN HESS If you pray for rain, don't be surprised if you're struck by lightning.
DAMIEN CANNON Since I was a child, death is definitely something that I think about every day. But I think that ev...
DAMIEN HIRST What I really like is minimum effort for maximum effect.
DAMIEN HIRST It's been a great spectacle -- I haven't done that for a while. It's a great opportunity to (score r...
DAMIEN MARTYN I always feel a bit trapped when a painting goes for millions of pounds and only one person can have...
DAMIEN HIRST You know when you've found it that's something I've learned, cause you feel it when they take it awa...
DAMIEN RICE A bloke for the 90s
DAMIEN HIRST It's a great advantage to be able to play people off against each other, isn't it? You go to...
DAMIEN HIRST I remember when you used to have your profession on your passport and I always thought that being a ...
DAMIEN HIRST But I always liked the fact that you get these totally unacceptable images, but they're taken by a r...
DAMIEN HIRST Because it's visual art, a lot of it comes from childhood experience but then a lot comes from the v...
DAMIEN HIRST As a father, I would say I am more like a mother. I do a lot of hugging.
DAMIEN HIRST But I'm more interested in why people are frightened by Jaws and why Jaws was such a hit than sa...
DAMIEN HIRST For me, art is always a kind of theater. When I started the spot paintings, I made them as an endles...
DAMIEN HIRST Picasso, Michelangelo, possibly, might be verging on genius, but I don't think a painter like Re...
DAMIEN HIRST I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It's like a ...
DAMIEN HIRST We're not enforcing our laws as strictly as we could. When you have a high percentage that is caused...
DAMIEN NEWTON America's veterans have earned more than this President and the Republican Congress have provided. W...
DAMIEN LAVERA The current EU statement is the latest in a very long list of warnings sent to the Government and Mi...
DAMIEN MULLEY Carney? Gentlemen, start your Honeymooners references.
DAMIEN COX But I'm more interested in why people are frightened by Jaws and why Jaws was such a hit than saying...
DAMIEN HIRST These women are sophisticated and educated about fashion. People have a misconception that this is a...
DAMIEN VERNET Just because you're down doesn't mean you can't rise to be a cream-of-the-crop team. You just can't ...
DAMIEN WOODY Ever since I was in the hospital, I don't take anything for granted. I cherish every second that I h...
DAMIEN HESS So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it...
DAMIEN HIRST I did a butterfly show in Berlin, and we had a guy who's an expert on butterflies; who bred them all...
DAMIEN HIRST It's a gross misrepresentation to say gays were omitted from the grassroots report. African American...
DAMIEN LAVERA Tomas has the excellent combination of a strong physical presence, agility and technical ability.
DAMIEN COMOLLI It's a great budget. What we saw before was DOT trying to build its way out of congestion.
DAMIEN NEWTON Those with less curiosity or ambition just mumble that God works in mysterious ways. I intend to cat...
DAMIEN ECHOLS In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has...
DAMIEN HIRST We've heard that they're appealing, and that's good, but they've lost a couple of cases. By all mean...
DAMIEN NEWTON My eyes were closed, they're open now
DAMIEN RICE Americans want change, not more of the same permanent commitment to a failed strategy in Iraq.
DAMIEN LAVERA Everyone's nervous, once you hand over your weapons you're exposed.
DAMIEN KINGSBURY I sometimes feel that I have nothing to say and I want to communicate this.
DAMIEN HIRST But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. I'm ...
DAMIEN HIRST I think it's just, I really enjoy art, and I just hope that when people come and see the exhibition,...
DAMIEN HIRST I always ignore money.
DAMIEN HIRST In fact, the first piece of art I ever sold, I paid someone else to make the next one, so I could ac...
DAMIEN HIRST Whereas if you suddenly go, OK, I choose to die now, you take the matter into your own hands.
DAMIEN HIRST But I could never make a judgement that something was obscene.
DAMIEN HIRST One thing leads to another with my work.
DAMIEN HIRST And I think, you know, I like it, so I can't understand it, I think if you're gonna have this stuff ...
DAMIEN HIRST I think if you've made it, why not name it?
DAMIEN HIRST It'd be nice to make lots of money but it's quite difficult, because every time I make lots of money...
DAMIEN HIRST I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work.
DAMIEN HIRST There's always something you missed or something you didn't notice or somehow you got wrong... I don...
DAMIEN HIRST I've seen things that are 200 years old, in formaldehyde.
DAMIEN HIRST I don't really have a career plan.
DAMIEN HIRST I have a Californian girlfriend and she's into a lot of Californian bands so I listen to that.
DAMIEN HIRST Most people live in the city and go to the country at the weekend, and that's posh and aristocratic,...
DAMIEN HIRST She wasn't much to look at, but she was great to dance with.
DAMIEN HIRST It's good to have a title that's not just one word. If you're gonna title it, you might as well try ...
DAMIEN HIRST I don't think I'd want my pet in formaldehyde, but I guess in America they would.
DAMIEN HIRST There's a lot of things that people don't like, I think it'd be difficult for anyone to go in and sa...
DAMIEN HIRST The shorter story;
No love, no glory;
No hero in her skies.
DAMIEN RICE