Quotes About Originality

I don't feel that I'm explaining the world or teaching people anything. And I'm not trying to be a mirror, showing them what's really going on the world. All I'm trying to do is think of stuff that's funny, just like when I'm kidding around with my friends.

I'm not trying to be anything other than the way I was born and raised.

If you're trying too hard to be the girl next door, you're not going to be.

I don't have an image that I'm trying to, like, portray. I'm just being me.

Tradition is the great misleader because it's too easy to follow what has already been done - even though you may think you're giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.

I think that people in general appreciate honesty and not trying to cook something up just to fit a mold that would be beneficial for you. I never made music like that.

Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.

I'm not trying to be something that I'm not, and I think a lot of people can relate to that. They want something that's real, and I think I give that to them.

I apply paint directly from the tube and with my fingers.

Creativity is down the tube. And people give a lot of lip service to individuality. I know they all appreciate it, but they all say they would like to do it, but they don't want to work at it, and it doesn't come out of the sky.

I don't come up with ideas in a test tube; I come up with ideas by breaking test tubes. That's how I've always been.

Sheryl Crow. I loved her 'Tuesday Night Music Club.' She expressed her own point of view, and she wasn't trying to be like anyone else, and I loved that. That's been the thinking of all my favorite artists.

Keep it in tune with the times, but don't write with the specific purpose of trying to create a hit. If you're doing it strictly to make money, you're crazy. There are easier ways to make money.

If you're behind the times, they won't notice you. If you're right in tune with them, you're no better than they are, so they won't care much for you. Be just a little ahead of them.

I want to do something that is not just a pastiche of drag that's come before but is really authentically me. I try to tune out all the drag that's out there and tap into the drag that I was doing when I was a little kid - when I didn't even know the word 'queer' or that gay people were out there.

To make a genuine record, it takes more than a cool beat and some auto tune.

I much prefer people who are very in tune with themselves, very musically inclined - no pretty boys.

Whenever we compose a tune we must put our full heart into it, only then the output will be best. That is why every song of mine has a fresh feel.

We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.

I've always been committed to tuning out the trends of drag and doing styles and fashions and performances that are really true to what I love, to the movie references I've always loved, fashion that speaks to me for whatever reason - no matter what people say.

A lot of people say I tried to emulate Tupac, but when I look back at my career, we're very different artists. I took pages out of Pac's book, of course, and lots of other rappers - Biggie, Nas - of course you take pages out of those books, but you eventually make it your own thing. And I think I did a good job of that.

You've got a lot of Tupac clones, but I don't think I'm one of them. I just think I give people a little piece of the feeling he gave them.

I refused to accept anything, doubted everything. So, doubting everything, I had to find something that had not existed before, something I had not thought of before. Any idea that came to me, the thing would be to turn it around and try to see it with another set of senses.

When we had to do book reports, I would pick a book that no one read and just make it up and turn that in. I got praised for my imagination.