Top 100 Jack White Quotes
#1. There's Catholic guilt about things, then there's the guilt of being the youngest of 10, so when nice things happen to you, you're not really allowed to enjoy them.
Jack White
#2. If what you are doing is working, DON'T change just to be different. Just get better.
Jack White
#3. Some people consider the way Shakespeare was writing about Ophelia as erotomania-that she was delusional in thinking that Hamlet was in love with her. But I don't think so.
Jack White
#4. I have very little interest in the bottom line or signing artists to help make the label profit. That's a lucky, unique position to be in, but it all comes out in the wash.
Jack White
#6. Inspiration and work ethic - they ride right next to each other.
Jack White
#7. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I'll share the formula I learned while forging my way forward as a full-time painter for forty-four years. The steps all break down to one simple sentence: Make art that connects with enough folks for you to earn a splendid living.
Jack White
#8. Saying you love something out loud with the wrong intonation in your face can damn you and destroy what you're working on.
Jack White
#9. If you're asking if I would be foolish enough, or insulting enough, to write about people in my life that I respect and sell it to the masses as a "break-up song," I can't imagine doing that to people I love.
Jack White
#10. Nowadays, everybody assumes, when they wake up in the morning, if they have a question, it will get answered. Because they have the internet. No matter what the question is, someone will answer their question.
Jack White
#11. I have never in my whole life asked for an autograph. It seems a little ... unnecessary.
Jack White
#12. I'd make a White Stripes record right now. I'd be in the White Stripes for the rest of my life. That band is the most challenging, important, fulfilling thing ever to happen to me. I wish it was still here. It's something I really, really miss.
Jack White
#13. I think you can't really escape any kind of spiritual education as a child, whether it's New Age or Judaism or Buddhism or whatever it is. You can't escape it, even if you completely disagree with it, you still have it as a foundation that you base things off of.
Jack White
#14. Our art is an adventure. It is a dream come true.
Jack White
#15. When I say nothing, I say everything
Jack White
#16. It is a myth that art has to be sold. It is not like stocking a grocery store where people fill a pushcart. Art is a product that has no apparent need. The salesperson builds the need in the mind of the buyer.
Jack White
#17. I know that's blasphemous when you are from Detroit, but I was never a fan of Motown stuff. I don't care for the production much.
Jack White
#18. I've always loved the word blunderbuss. I've always thought that it was a beautiful word and that it could mean several different things.
Jack White
#19. I want to be part of the resurgence of things that are tangible, beautiful and soulful, rather than just give in to the digital age. But when I talk to people about this they just say, 'Yeah, I know what you mean,' and stare at their mobiles.
Jack White
#20. Many days you will want to give up because of rejections and failures. Passion to be an artist will help you prevail where others fail.
Jack White
#21. No. I know that's blasphemous when you are from Detroit.
Jack White
#22. In all my songs, I take on roles and play characters. It's a unique way to explore ideas and decisions I might not think or make in real life.
Jack White
#23. A songwriter's heart is pure when they have the desire to keep digging deeper into music. And invariably, when you dig deeper it always leads you into the past.
Jack White
#24. The fact that we elected Obama was a sign that the black struggle inherent in the blues and so much of the music I have loved can triumph.
Jack White
#25. Art is only worth what people will pay for it. Artists do not get paid by the hour.
Jack White
#26. I would never be able to live in a huge city. I'd feel like one of 100,000 people doing the same thing.
Jack White
#27. I've always felt it's ridiculous to say, of any of the females in my life: You're my friend, you're my wife, you're my girlfriend, you're my co-worker. This is your box, and you're not allowed to stray outside of it.
Jack White
#28. I love the way art moves people emotionally. I love the fact that when someone purchases art it is the one thing that will last for generations.
Jack White
#29. From now on take time to be amazing, tell those who matter, I LOVE YOU.
Jack White
#30. A lot of people in the media, and some everyday people, really aren't in search of the truth. They're in search of something worse than that. Money, yeah. I think the media's the kind of a thing where the truth doesn't win, because it's no fun. The truth's no fun.
Jack White
#31. The bottom line is we must get off our duff and make an effort to succeed. Trust me on this, when you see someone successful in any of the arts they have been willing to make an extra effort.
Jack White
#32. Passion, for me, is like a shark - it never stops moving.
Jack White
#33. Mastery is the rudder, Mystery is the sail and Magic the wind to move you in your chosen direction.
Jack White
#34. My mother's the youngest of 10 children too, so we have sort of a special bond in that we know what that feels like. It's a strange spot to be in.
Jack White
#35. Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth. Auto-tuning doesn't do anything for creativity. Yeah, it makes it easier and you can get home sooner; but it doesn't make you a more creative person. That's the disease we have to fight in any creative field: ease of use.
Jack White
#36. Jesus Christ, is this an NPR convention?
Jack White
#37. Like it or not, people tend to buy paintings to match their drapes, couch or carpet. I know you want them to be so overwhelmed with your skills they can't resist hauling your art home. These three factors are what dictate most art sales.
Jack White
#38. It's kind of ridiculous that I find inspiration in just getting away from everything. But when you've gone through it, you realize that it's the enemy. It's a distraction from what you're really doing. You've got to keep moving. Like a shark.
Jack White
#39. It was really hard to find people to come over and play guitar and sing and write songs together. So that turned me into a songwriter that way, just so I could be able to play with other people.
Jack White
#40. When you put something out there into the world, there's all these words you don't want to hear, that you hope people don't say. I don't like anything that starts with 're' - like retro, reinvent, recreate - I hate that. It's always like living in the past - copying, emulating.
Jack White
#41. The day that music is taken for free by the majority is the day that the phrase "sell out" doesn't exist any more.
Jack White
#42. Deadlines and things make you creative.
Jack White
#43. Great work comes from great joy. Leave the angst for the movies; do art - that is fun.
Jack White
#44. Passion is the breath we take, the water we drink to sustain ourselves. Without air and water we perish; without passion an artist will wither and blow away.
Jack White
#45. You can't steal an artist's songs and also tell him he can't license that music to a commercial.
Jack White
#46. I made a rule for myself in my early 20s not to become a record collector in the sense that I reference all my old records. I can't live like that. I'd just be trapped in comparison, trying to emulate something, so I made a rule to just buy what I need, just the records I need.
Jack White
#47. I grew up in the 90s in the time of grunge when if you didn't go on stage in jeans and a T shirt you weren't 'real.' That seemed ridiculous to me.
Jack White
#48. Failure comes when we don't get back up and try again.
Jack White
#49. With the White Stripes we were trying to trick people into not realising we were playing the blues. We did not want to come off like white kids trying to play black music from 100 years ago so a great way to distract them was by dressing in red, white and black.
Jack White
#50. It seemed like there was no control over it. I think certain things just popped. God was blessing us in telling us that certain things were going the way they were supposed to go.
Jack White
#51. I am a commercial artist because I paint to earn a living. We who earn money from what we produce are all commercial artists.
Jack White
#52. This is a fact. If you don't make art people like, you will never earn a living as an artist.
Jack White
#53. I just think old old movies, they make you concentrate and pay attention so much more. They feel so warm. A lot of modern digital videotape, it's just too bright. Don't know why, it's not warm.
Jack White
#54. Maybe we should all just listen to records and quit our jobs
Jack White
#56. I didn't really even think of recording under my own name for a long time. I thought, 'I've got the rest of my life to do that.'
Jack White
#57. Any man with a microphone can tell you what he loves the most.
Jack White
#58. I think I've been a good boy long enough and given everyone around me a fair piece of the pie as far as all of the fleeting glory and reward that comes from the heavens - or the music press, whatever you want to call it.
Jack White
#59. I won't let love disrupt, corrupt, or interrupt me.
Jack White
#60. I have trouble listening to people tell me about their dreams.
Jack White
#61. I wanted to be able to talk with people who have trade jobs and make records with them. I want to do more records with carpenters, electricians, people who specialize in even more bizarre trades that are off the beaten path.
Jack White
#62. Every time there's a list of the 100 greatest records of all time, all those albums were recorded in two days. Hardly any of them took a year, I'll tell you. In this day and age, I think it's important that people know that.
Jack White
#63. I'm excited by the band [White Stripes]. It really excites me. But it wouldn't excite me if there weren't those limitations, if we weren't living in that box, if we weren't trapped. Once that goes away, then I'll know that it's not worth doing it any more.
Jack White
#64. Relationships of any kind are powerful, and they always influence an artist. It's inescapable.
Jack White
#65. There are distractions, all around. There's so much media, for a young kid to battle against, to get to something soulful. You have to make a decision, on your own, what you can take from these people, if you can dig deeper. It's nice to be able to let people dig deeper.
Jack White
#66. If you're doing something that people want, they'll find you.
Jack White
#67. I believe I am a better director than actor. I enjoy acting if the part is right. Directing comes very naturally to me. I enjoy it. I am very confident in my work.
Jack White
#68. I'd got accepted to the seminary in Wisconsin, and I was gonna become a priest, but the last second I thought, 'I'll just go to public school.' I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn't think I was allowed to take it with me.
Jack White
#69. I've always worked to find really deep meaning of song and also at the same time having it covered in sugar, so it can be taken two or three different ways.
Jack White
#70. I don't think there is room for 'artistic temperament.' Professional artists understand art is a business. If businesses ran their companies like many artists do their careers, they would not stay open a year.
Jack White
#71. Collectors are paying for our education by purchasing our art.
Jack White
#73. Im one of those people that you have to keep your eye on or i'll wander off into the woods and forget to come back
Jack White
#74. The only person who is hurt by jealousy is you ... Eliminate that word from your life ... it may not make you unsuccessful selling your art, but it will destroy your happiness.
Jack White
#75. For new bands, I think a major label is the safest place to be. Independent labels are the ones getting away with murder. A lot of them are hobbyists who rip-off young bands, taking advantage of people who would never get signed to a major.
Jack White
#76. We were like a white family from the 1920s or something. My parents had this bizarre, different way of looking at things from the people that surrounded us. I went to an all-Mexican grade school and an all-black high school, and not many people in those places liked the same stuff as me.
Jack White
#77. The most exciting rock 'n' roll band of the last 50 years who are still on the road today
Jack White
#78. People talk about wanting amenities - downtown is the amenity.
Jack White
#79. It's harder to put yourself in a place where you could easily be seen as a fake. But that's more interesting to me.
Jack White
#80. Punk is an attitude, not a genre, age group, or time period. What's interesting is trying to define the blues and punk in different ways. They are very close cousins.
Jack White
#81. It's hard to find other musicians that push you to go somewhere new all the time.
Jack White
#82. The true professional makes art when he is not feeling good, if the studio is too cold or too warm or the walls are falling down. We are painters and we paint. If I were a sculptor, I'd sculpt.
Jack White
#83. The price we sell things for is not important. What is important is we sell art that has to be replaced. You become good in art by doing art. The more you sell, the more you must produce.
Jack White
#84. The secret is planning your work and working your plan. If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you arrive? You can't stumble upon your destination.
Jack White
#85. People have sort of a problem trying to see an end to a situation as being positive or romantic.
Jack White
#86. Another inch of your life, sacrificed for your brother, in the nick of time.
Jack White
#87. I trust no one who hasn't time for music.
Jack White
#88. In my bands, I don't really walk around telling people what to play, just out of respect really. I mean, if there's something I feel in my gut, I'll bring it up.
Jack White
#89. I can't imagine being anything creative in a major town because everybody's doing the same exact thing you're doing. How can you not get confused about what you yourself are doing?
Jack White
#90. Do not trust people who call themselves musicians or record collectors who say that they don't like Bob Dylan or the Beatles. They do not love music if those words come out of their mouths.
Jack White
#91. I always stayed away from the studio environment as much as possible. But I just wanted to see if I could work in one. It's not easy. Just having an engineer's assistant around is enough for me to be uncomfortable. With more than one person there in the room, it feels strange.
Jack White
#92. My mother was 45 when she had me, so when I was in high school my parents were the same age as my friends' grandparents.
Jack White
#93. The auctioneer is talking for both people, and that's the big revelation about, 'Oh, that's what they're doing.' They're just doing it very fast, so you could kind of miss on that. He's speaking for you, because people in the crowd don't have a voice, so that's what really makes it compelling.
Jack White
#94. Life is simple unless we find a way to make it complicated.
Jack White
#95. Amy Winehouse: Did she invent white soul? Wearing a beehive? No. But she did something brand new and fresh, altogether as a package, and you see who's in her wake, from the Duffys to the Lana Del Reys ... Adele selling 20 million records? That would not have happened if Amy Winehouse was alive.
Jack White
#96. I think that sometimes love gets in the way of itself - you know, love interrupts itself. We want things so much that we sabotage them.
Jack White
#97. I think that most people, and by people I mean journalists, think that I pre-conceive everything and that I spend my afternoons dreaming up self-mythologizing points of interest.
Jack White
#98. People aren't buying records like they used to, so it's nice to try to figure out a way to make them do it. I would enjoy the same thing to own an old movie house, to try to trick people to come in - like having 3-D or Smell-o-Vision or Vibra-Vision or something. Mcguffins to get people interested.
Jack White
#99. Inspiration and creativity, they ride right next to one anotherNot everyday are you going to wake up, the clouds are gonna part and the rays are gonna come downsometimes you gotta just get in there and force yourself to work and maybe something good will come out of it.
Jack White
#100. If you don't have a struggle inside or around you, you have to make one up.
Jack White
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