Willis Earl Beal Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I don't have a computer, but when I get access to one, I'm always looking myself up on Google, because it's exciting.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Google, Computer, Exciting

  Interview with Evan Minsker, pitchfork.com. February 7, 2012.

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• People tend to believe that I want to make soul music, which is not entirely untrue but, really, I want to be like the black Tom Waits - I don't want to make one kind of sound.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Believe, People, Waiting

  Interview with Evan Minsker, pitchfork.com. February 7, 2012.

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• I feel totally disconnected from reality in Washington. Maybe I'm just really pretentious - in fact, I probably am - but I feel like people in this city have no idea about where their reality is coming from and who is helping them to live in this illusion. I've gone from the south side of Chicago, where everyone is completely unrealistic about what's important in life to a place like this, where people are still unrealistic about what's important, but it's on two opposite sides of the spectrum. I just get tired of it all. It makes me really, really angry.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Tired, Reality, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• As far as trying to make it terms of social hierarchy or status and all that in art and music - I've always felt that that stuff was bullshit. It's got very little to do with reality, and reality is where things live. You look at a painting and think, "Oh, it's beautiful. It inspires me," whatever. But it's never going to inspire you like reality. A lot of these artists and musicians who prioritize skill over experience, they sit around masturbating themselves over knowledge and intellect rather than just going to a place.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Beautiful, Art, Reality

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• What I'm trying to do is paint a picture of an atypical human being going through all of the existential struggles, but all the while realizing the carnality and small things, because I like minutiae a lot. All the while knowing that it's a forest - knowing that none of it means anything. I think if more people understood that, they would just go ahead and kill themselves like they're gonna do anyway, but do it quickly as opposed to hanging out and using up resources. Don't just sit around criticizing other people and wasting time. I do that, but I'm not really skilled in any other way.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Struggle, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I haven't figured out how to do anything yet besides recording music - I don't even entirely know how to do that. My favorite phrase is "It takes a lot of imagination to have no talent." So it's a struggle because I struggle between thinking about whether or not I'm actually a musician, am I actually an artist. Does it matter what I'm doing? Should I just go and jump off a bridge? Thinking about the social hierarchy and the fact that I'm American, and how I don't identify with being American, nor do I identify with any nationality or my race.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Struggle, Artist, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I don't think talent has anything to do with inspiration. Inspiration creates talent. People prioritize innate talent too much. It gives them license to walk around and act like assholes. I think I straddle a line between being innately talented and having had to put in some work. You ever go to a party where there are a lot of creative people and they feel like they have license to just act any kind of way? I'm not really a moral person myself, but they just tend to never ever be sincere because they believe their art or the fact that they are artists makes them holy in some way.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Art, Believe, Inspiration

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I'm very curious about people, and one of the most difficult truths for me to accept as a person is that I'll never be anyone else, and I will never fully understand anyone's perspective other than my own. Because I've come to some understanding of that, I feel it's this very difficult but worthwhile challenge to get as close as I possible can to that. If the only way that we can do that is through language, then that's how it has to be done.

  Willis Earl Beal

  People, Perspective, Understanding

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• It always fascinates me how you can get so much joy listening to another person, when me, personally, I can only listen to myself and my music these days. I've got some people in my iPod, but I only listen to myself. I'm folding into myself and I used to think that that was what you're supposed to do - you're supposed to reject everyone else and figure out who you are. You get little shards and points of reference, but that's how you confirm that only you know what is right for you. Everything else is pollution. What's starting to happen to me is sort of an identity crisis.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Thinking, People, Joy

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I think the best way to listen to my music is through recording. I would love to be one of those artists where you can go into a coffee shop and watch people pass by and then my music is in their ears. Not necessarily a sensory deprivation thing, but that's cool too. Unfortunately in order to focus on nobody else, you would probably have to go into a dark room and just sit there and listen to it.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Coffee, Dark, Artist

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I would much rather not be the center of attention, and I'd much rather travel and be writing my novel, rather than standing on a stage and trying to get people to understand something.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Writing, People, Trying

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• I am nothing; nothing is everything

  Willis Earl Beal

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. September 20, 2013.

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• My delusion outweighs my talent by far and it always will, because if it doesn't, then there's no point in living.

  Willis Earl Beal

  Talent, Delusion, No Point

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. September 20, 2013.

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