A Quote by Common

When I started thinking about it, I was like, 'OK, if throughout time I get labeled as a conscious artist, I'll be very much celebrated, in a way, and honored.' — © Common
When I started thinking about it, I was like, 'OK, if throughout time I get labeled as a conscious artist, I'll be very much celebrated, in a way, and honored.'
I don't like the camera. I get very self-conscious with it and then spend way too much time not looking self-conscious instead of being free, as I do on stage, to do my work.
I like to tell kids that I started thinking about stories when I first started reading stuff like Dr. Seuss and 'Go, Dog. Go!,' thinking, 'Oh yeah, that's funny. I'd like to do that.' And then writing throughout school, but at the same time I was studying pre-med stuff, because my mom told me I should be a doctor.
I never want to feel complacent, and I had started to, a little bit. I had started to feel like "I have this thing I can do, it's worked a few times," but not only does that get boring, but you feel stagnant and unproductive. So I was feeling a lack of creativity and motivation, so I started making a more conscious choice to grow personally. It wasn't even an image-conscious thing, like, "I don't want people to think this way about me." It was really just a way to keep myself energized and feel excited about this thing I love doing. Like I went to couples therapy or something.
The conscious act of thinking about one's thoughts in a different way changes the very brain circuits that do that thinking.
For young women, I would say don't worry so much about your weight. Girls spend way too much time thinking about that, and there are better things. For young men, and women, too, what makes you different or weird-that's your strength. Everyone tries to look a cookie-cutter kind of way, and actually the people who look different are the ones who get picked up. I used to hate my nose. Now I don't. It's OK.
Not everybody is going to like what I do or get what I do. With as much positive, you always get the negative to deal with. I get that as well. Most of the time, I'm very honored to have a fan base that they react to my songs. My songs speak to a lot of them.
I'm definitely not an outsider artist. I'm very much an insider artist. I get written about in art magazines, and I'm not, like, in a mental institution. I'm a regular guy who went to art school.
I hardly look at myself in the mirror... I'll only wear makeup if I need to cover something up. But I've recently started caring about my skin. I just turned 60 and was like, 'OK, maybe it's time to start thinking about it.' Before that, I would just splash water on my face, put cream on, and then leave.
I start thinking about life after death. I've got to quit thinking about it because it's very deep. Very deep. Sometimes you start thinking about it, and you don't feel like you want to be alive, so I don't like to get all quiet.
After Princess Diaries, I was labeled a good girl, and for the first eight years of my career I had to fight to get any other kind of role. But I like fighting for a job, actually. Once you get it, you feel like you've emerged victorious from the scrap and you're like, "OK, this one's mine. Did it. Done."
I'm thinking, 'OK, we're about to fight.' I'm like, 'We're about to get it on right here at the VMAs?
The first time I fought Mike Chandler, I was thinking about money way too much. I was thinking about the end of my contract. My focus was way off. I didn't believe in the people that were guiding me.
I think if you spend much time dwelling on influence you can get self-conscious about every line you write. That's a great way to freeze up.
We very much use a prototyping model, play with ideas, and then get stuff started that way, which is how the greatest projects get started.
When we lost Bobby, I would wake up in the morning and think, 'He's OK. He's in Heaven, and he's with Jack and a lot of my brothers and sisters and my parents.' So it made it very easy to get through the day thinking he was OK.
I started to be much happier in my relationships when I realized that I can only control myself. That way, you don't worry about people and don't waste your time thinking, 'What if he cheats on me?' You can't control that.
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