It's not essential for me to have a big debut week; it's not essential for me to have big radio records.
— Frank Ocean
Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there's always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?
I'm big on what's in good taste.
I wrote 'Channel Orange' in two weeks. The end product wasn't always that gritty, real-life depiction of the real struggle that happened.
When you write a song like 'Forrest Gump,' the subject can't be androgynous. It requires an unnecessary amount of effort.
I can't usually stomach a project after I finish it, but for those days and weeks and months that it's new to me, I do listen to it, and it might change over time, but it's about function.
It's more interesting for me to figure out how to be superior in areas where I'm naive, where I'm a novice.
When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, 'No, I'm just going to write what I feel I should write.'
Super-envious of the fact that Daft Punk can wear robot helmets and be one of the most famous bands in the world, while also understanding that will never be my situation.
You gotta make sure the listener is listening to you, so if you put it into a song, often times, if the song is striking enough, then you can really deliver the story most effectively while keeping the ear of the listener the whole time.
Boys do cry, but I don't think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years.
The Internet made fame wack and anonymity cool.
Sometimes I'm fascinated with how famous my work could be while I'm not so famous.
I'm in this business to be creative - I'll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.
I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.
I like the anonymity that directors can have about their films.
I don't ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing 'cos that's just... that's just telling yourself a lie.
It's hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.
I had writer's block for almost a year.
I grew up in New Orleans. I had just moved into my dorm at the University of New Orleans, and I was doing laundry, and my mom called me, like, 'We've got to evacuate. There's a hurricane's coming.'
I can operate in half-a-song format.
Obviously, the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I'm watching a Wes Anderson movie, the colour palettes alone, and the way they're painted, could be art. With music, you're a little bit limited, of course, because it's only audio.
It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn't reaping the lion's share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.
I believe that I'm one of the best in the world at what I do, and that's all I've ever wanted to be.
You can't think; you just gotta do things.
The Internet is just another experiment showing us more sides of us.
I guess I'm just inspired to tell stories.
In the studio, we adhere to a strict colour code. Developed over decades, the colour code consists of a finite and precise colour palate... The whole world as we experience it comes to us through the mystic realm of colour.
I was a thug.
When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family - not even my mother - who I could look to and be like, 'I know you've never said anything homophobic.' So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you've heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.
I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.
Here's what I think about music and journalism: The most important thing is to just press play.
You just do what you can and you have as much fun as possible.
I'm not a centerfold.
I need to know how many records I've sold, how many album equivalents from streaming, which territories are playing my music more than others, because it helps me in conversations about where we're gonna be playing shows or where I might open a retail location, like a pop-up store or something.
I respect Drake not only as a creative person but as a business mind as well. I think Drake's important.
My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.
This has always been my life and no one else's, and that's how it's always been since the day I came in it.
The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?
Because I'm not in a record deal, I don't have to operate in an album format.
The work is the work. The work is not me.
I've gotten used to being Frank Ocean.
I think we all change each other's paths. I don't know which law idea that is in physics, but I don't think any of us can live without affecting one another.
Art's everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.
How we experience memory sometimes, it's not linear. We're not telling the stories to ourselves. We know the story; we're just seeing it in flashes overlaid.
I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer's block.
I worked my face off.
I hope not to define myself by suffering.
All in all, I just don't trust journalists - and I don't think it's a good practice for me to trust journalists.
I play piano every day. I enjoy that.
