Quotes About Individuality

I am a collection of the family's body parts.

Joey, it's high time, dear child. What will people say? If you don't want to be a doctor, at least be a womanizer, or a fancier of horses, be something... be something definite...

To contradict, even in little matters, is the supreme necessity of art today.

I could have protested of course, who says I couldn't--I could have risen to my feet at any moment, walked up to them, and--no matter how difficult it would have been--made it abundantly clear that I was not seventeen but thirty. I could have--yet I couldn't because I didn't want to, the only thing I wanted was to prove that I was not an old-fashioned boy!

I even stopped walking to give some thought to the fact that everyone, after all, wants to be himself, so I too want to be myself, for example who would love syphilis, of course no one loves syphilis, but after all, a syphilitic man also wants to be himself, namely a syphilitic, it is easy to say "I want to be well again," and yet it sounds strange, as if to say "I don't want to be who I am.

You don't have to be a certain thing to be cool. If you're white, you don't have to act black or whatever. Just be you and know who you are.

I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.

Rather than listen to what other people tell you, find out what is really important to you and just be concerned with that

People who think honestly and deeply have a hostile attitude towards the public.

We forget that there is much more patriotism in having the audacity to differ from the majority than in running before the crowd; we forget that in the resistance of the minority some of the biggest things in our own history have been accomplished, and the man who looks on the Stars and Stripes and doesn't hold a right to say nay to his neighbor, even if the neighbor is of the larger party, has forgotten the history of his country.

People always ask me, Do you ever think you'll wake up one morning and not be funny? That thought would never occur to me--it's an odd thought and not realistic. Because funny and me are not separate. We're one.

The difference between sex and death is, with death you can do it alone and nobody's going to make fun of you.

The path that one person follows is not the correct path for any other person. Each of us must walk his own path to enlightenment— that is the way.

I tried to be like them, I really did. I became very athletic, but as is the case with many families, it's the firstborn who's the father's child.

What is the good of being an island, if you are not a volcanic island?

People ought to be allowed to drop to pieces in any way they choose. I even disapprove of propping them up. Let nations, like men, die in peace. I rather feel as if I had been delivering pep talks to men dying of cancer.

We are against the glorification of "the People," as we are against snobbery. It is not necessary to be an outcast bohemian, to be unkempt or poor, any more than it is necessary to be rich or handsome, to be an artist. Art is nothing to do with the coat you wear. A top-hat can well hold the Sixtine. A cheap cap could hide the image of Kephren.

And to wish to be alone, or to drink alone, or to do anything else alone, is the first step to the supernatural: which, in its turn, is the first step to the stake or the crucifix.

Jazz is democracy in music.

You are creative, whoever you are. Respect your own creativity and respect the creativity and creative space of other people.

The most prized possession in this music is your own unique sound. Through sound, jazz leads you to the core of yourself and says "Express that." Through jazz, we learn that people are never all one way. Each musician has strengths and weaknesses. We enjoy hearing musicians struggle with their parts, and if we go one step further and learn to accept the strong and weak parts of people around us and of ourselves, life comes at us much more easily. A judge has a hard time out here.

I was in a conversation with a student here, on the campus, yesterday, and she, after we were, I think we had coffee or dinner or something, there were several of us, I have to add that in for those mind of yours that run astray, and she asked me, she told me that "We'll I'm surprised that you're not what I expected," and I said what do you mean. And she said "Well I was looking for you horns," and so I told her I have them, but I keep them hidden unless someone draws them out.

I don't have any hate. I've got some sense. I'm not going to let anybody who hates me tell me to love him. I'm not that way-out.

Eso es lo más podrido de tener un novio, que te pasas la vida haciendo excepciones. Cosas que nunca te daría la gana hacer.