Steve Martin on Integrity Quotes

"Mastery is the result of thousands of small, honest decisions made over a lifetime."

"The goal is not to be famous. The goal is to be good."

"The banjo is such a happy instrument. You can't play a sad song on the banjo—it always comes out sounding like a square dance. You have to be true to the instrument's nature."

"I'm a perfectionist. I'm not a person who can just wing it. Integrity means showing up prepared."

"You can't just wait for inspiration. You have to work through the lack of it. That is where character is built."

"I think I did have a kind of integrity. I didn't want to do the same old jokes."

"Be so good they can't ignore you."

"Artistic integrity is about knowing when to stop listening to the critics and start listening to the banjo."

"I wanted to be a person who was known for the quality of the work, not the volume of the noise."

"I love the process of writing. It's the only time I feel completely honest with myself."

"Honesty is the most important thing in comedy, but you have to be honest about the right things."

"Persistence is a great substitute for talent. If you stay true to your path long enough, the world catches up."

"The mind is a beautiful thing, but it's also a very dangerous thing if you don't have a moral compass to guide it."

"When you are performing, you are in a contract with the audience. You owe them your absolute best, every single time."

"At some point, you have to stop worrying about what they think and start worrying about what you think."

"It is very easy to be tricky. It is very hard to be honest."

"I believe that integrity is the only thing that lasts. You can be a flash in the pan, but if you don't have that core of honesty, it fades."

"Integrity is not a destination; it's a way of traveling."

"Integrity is when your internal monologue matches your external actions."

"There is a great joy in doing something as well as you can, even if no one ever sees the effort."

"I decided that I would never do anything I didn't believe in, even if it meant I wouldn't be famous."

"I was not naturally talented. I didn't sing, dance, or tell jokes. I worked at it. That is the integrity of the craft."

"You have to be willing to fail to find the thing that works. Avoiding failure is a form of dishonesty with yourself."

"The hardest thing is to be simple. It takes a lot of work to be simple and a lot of integrity to stay that way."

"A lot of people think that if they're famous, they're successful. But success is doing the thing you love well, with no shortcuts."

"You have to find the truth in the character, even if the character is a fool."

"If you're not failing every now and then, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."

"Don't let your ego get in the way of the work. The work is the only thing that matters."

"I've always felt that the best way to be funny is to be absolutely serious about the absurdity."

"I did stand-up for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success. I never cheated the process."

"I’ve learned that you can’t please everyone, so you might as well please yourself and keep your soul intact."

"My life has been a series of experiments. Some worked, some didn't, but I never lied about the results."

"Comedy is a very serious business. It takes a lot of discipline to make things look effortless."