Quotes About Originality

Als conformist leef ik, probeer ik te leven, door na te bootsen, uit respect voor de regels van het spel, uit afkeer van originaliteit. Gelatenheid van een automaat: de schijn van hartstocht veinzen en er in het geheim om lachen; je naar de conventies plooien om ze heimelijk te verwerpen; in alle registers voorkomen, maar zonder residentie in de tijd; je gezicht redden terwijl het nodig is het te verliezen...

STAY WEIRD, DON'T LET OTHERS DEFINE YOU"

I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.

To think is to differ.

I don't want beauty, I want identity.

I'm not a synonym—I'm a proper noun.

Ignorance of the law of irreducibility was no excuse. I could no longer excuse myself with the claim that I didn't know the law -- for knowledge of self and of the world is the law that, even though unattainable, cannot be broken, and no one can excuse himself by saying that he doesn't know it. . . . The renewed originality of the sin is this: I have to carry out my unknowing, I shall be sinning originally against life.

Every idea that occurred to him, because he became familiar with it in seconds, came with the fear of having stolen it.

Ignorance of the law of irreducibility was no excuse. I could no longer excuse myself with the claim that I didn't know the law — for knowledge of self and of the world is the law that, even though unattainable, cannot be broken, and no one can excuse himself by saying that he doesn't know it. . . . the renewed originality of the sin is this: I have to carry out my own unknown law, and if I don't carry out my unknowing, I shall be sinning originally against life.

The effect of sincerity is to give one's work the character of a protest. The painter, being concerned only with conveying his impression, simply seeks to be himself and no one else.

Siempre es más sencillo parecerse a los demás.

All profoundly original art looks ugly at first.

Being famous is not everything. Being yourself is more than just anything.

We prefer to think that the absence of inverted commas guarantees the originality of a thought, whereas it may be merely that the utterer has forgotten its source.

There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.

There are no genres, there are only talents. —JEAN-FRANÇOIS REVEL, LE VOLEUR DANS LA MAISON VIDE, P. 311

Riled by pedantic reviewers in search of a solecism, Proust said that there was no correctness this side of originality.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

In order to be irreplaceacle, one must always be different.

I don't do fashion, I AM fashion.

Those who are not imitated always get disappointed.

You see this dub thing, I was the one who invented it in 1965. People think it came later. But sometimes when I got a song to mix I used to just rub out the lyrics and remake it, and add in all kind of echoes and reverb and all that. Cause to tell you the truth, that is how I was seeing myself–like somebody whose voice got rubbed out.

There was nothing fake or added about him. He was all himself.

There was nothing fake or added or subtracted about him. He was all himself.