Quote

I tend to focus less on genre as a starting point and more on idea or intention and let the idea dictate genre.

Vivek Shraya

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vivek Shraya
Focus
Point
Less
Idea
Dictate
Ideas
Genre
Intention
Tend
Starting

More quotes by Vivek Shraya

Image
When I wouldn't leave home without my blue contacts or when I was bleaching my hair, I didn't have the language to articulate that I was trying to assimilate to whiteness. If anything, I was trying to look normal.
Vivek Shraya
Image
As a general rule, I tend to collaborate with artists whose work I admire.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I especially worry about the ways Canadians can be glib about our supposed difference from the US in our acceptance of diversity.
Vivek Shraya
Image
When I do book readings, I always incorporate music or singing.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Children are receptive to talking about gender creativity, confirming the importance of the book as a means to instigate this dialogue at an early age.
Vivek Shraya
Image
My interest in language is steadfast, but I think each project and its accompanying intentions dictate how language must be used.
Vivek Shraya
Image
As much as I believe in the capacity for art to create change, and as much as being an artist is physically and emotionally challenging, there is ultimately something a bit comfortable about making art in the comfort of your own home.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I continue to explore poetry.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I am more likely to get paid for my art if it's presented alongside a white artist, so the questions around value and agency arise: What choices should I make, or do I have to make, if I want to be compensated for my work? Why isn't my art valued on its own?
Vivek Shraya
Image
I don't yet know what style will be required for my next novel, but my sense is that each book will involve a new relationship to language.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Music is my first love, where my artistic journey began.
Vivek Shraya
Image
In my thirties, I have felt a greater urgency to make art that highlights what it feels like to be racialized, likely due to living in a country that obscures our racism with the idea of multiculturalism.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Making music has been connected to one of my greatest heartaches, because my own music has never quite connected with audiences. But it was this heartache that pushed me to explore other artistic avenues, like writing and filmmaking, and I ultimately feel most at home in a multidisciplinary environment.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I do use art as a site of protest, particularly in relation to dominant narratives.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I would love to see more dialogue around the responsibilities of art consumers - how can audiences better financially support artists we love, artists who are doing the work, so that artists have a more solid foundation upon which to make art?
Vivek Shraya
Image
I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.
Vivek Shraya
Image
My intention was never to write a trans novel - which is perhaps an effective strategy for writing a trans novel.
Vivek Shraya
Image
If anything, I have witnessed the ways my art travels, or is rendered more accessible, when sanctioned by or connected to white artists.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Now is not the time for Canadians to be sanctimonious. It is time for us to be prudent and active.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I used singing as a safety measure. I would pay attention to what songs the popular girls liked, learn those songs from the radio or library cassettes, and then accidentally sing or hum these songs in class. This would impress the girls, who would then defend me from the boys.
Vivek Shraya