Quotes About Originality

I just don't conform very well.

I probably don't conform to most people's idea of a fashion editor.

I'm not a conformist.

I am not a conformist.

I always wanted to create my own musical world. That takes time and must be earned, and it does mean sometimes confronting the expectations of the audience.

I think connecting natural elements and musicology is probably pretty idiosyncratic of me, so it is hard to imagine anyone else going down that route.

I love performing, and connecting with an audience never gets old for me, but it does get old for me when my audience is just only interested in something they've already heard.

What I've been conscious of, from the beginning is that I can't be Jil Sander.

Look at people for an example, but then make sure to do things your way. Surround yourself with positive people.

In America, they never make anything without first having a market survey to ask the public what they want. People only ask for things they already know about, so you don't get anything new that way. That's why American fashion is stuck.

All my books are made up of other books. They're all deeply structured on other fiction, because I was a student in fiction and I didn't have much actual living to draw on. I suspect a lot of other people's novels are like that, too, though they might be slower to talk about it.

People think it's suspect and self-indulgent to make art, and I don't think that's true. Some people think you should be busy making something that you can sell in the marketplace, and if nobody wants to buy it, it must be crap. And that's not true.

A lot of times, I think people feel that new plays are suspect, and actually, I don't know where that came from. I completely disagree with it!

Plagiarists are always suspicious of being stolen from.

If only media people would stop reaching for the low-hanging fruit, which is cynicism and pessimism, and stopped trying so hard to be hip and cool and have a swagger.

I appreciate people who sway to the beat of their own tambourine, like Iris Apfel and Helena Bonham Carter.

I did go bankrupt because everybody copied me - every single industry. But genuinely, it doesn't matter. I swear I don't care.

I'm really happy that people understand that man-repelling is a good thing. I was afraid people would think I was mocking fashion, and it's like, 'No, I swear, I'm wearing feathered sleeves as I write this!'

I dread to be compared to all these directors who have a lot of spontaneous emoting and swearing in their films - that is death; it's a cul-de-sac. It doesn't lift the material at all. It's just a cliched reproduction of what we think is normal behaviour.

At a personal level, I rather like it if you can create characters and storylines that don't have to rely on being crude and swearing.

I'm the laziest inventor you ever met. My inventing is in my head - I don't have to be in the lab working and sweating.

It's very easy to copy Swedish House Mafia, or Avicii, or Skrillex, or whatever. People listen too much to each other and are too much inspired by each other.

We just try to write about things that are close to our hearts. We don't sit around trying to write another 'Free Bird' or 'Sweet Home Alabama.'

It's real easy in a lot of businesses for your head to swell up, and you become somebody else. So that's one of my main goals in the business - to continue to be me.