Ruth Ozeki Quotes

Dream big and surround yourself with brilliance, even if you end up dressed up like a flower or a sexually transmitted disease.

If you have a little sensibility or a heart, you have all the reason to be depressed once in a while. But the depression is like a motor for creation. I need a little bit of depression, a bit of acid in my stomach, to be able to create. When I'm happy, I just want to dance.

If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.

I'm thankful for weird people out there 'cause they're some of the most creative people.

The downside of videos is that it will put my vision in front of other people, so they might not get the chance to create their own.

I do worry that it's impossible to write something original, that there's nothing that a human hasn't already thought of. But I can put it out of my mind and get on with what I'm doing.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.

Fashion isn't interesting when it comes from an uninspired place.

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.

I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.

While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness.

I take inspiration from everything around me, also relationships and friends. And the inside of my crazy head.

I think that I'm so psychotic and so mentally ill that if I could tap into that I could do something really interesting.

There are no original ideas. There are only original people.

I never liked to copy things that are out there. I always like to come up with something new, something different.

I'm constantly trying to be as original as I can.

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

We're all going to keep telling love stories, we're all going to tell hero stories. It's all a question of what your own thumbprint, your own DNA, is, and what it brings to the table that makes it unique.

Labels don't really impress, it's the uniqueness and risk in decor that inspire.

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

A lot of people forget how important it is to be creative. We get caught up in getting ahead and in day-to-day minutiae. But creativity is a fundamental mode of expression, as is being tenacious and standing by your own convictions and passions, even if it's not the 'popular' choice.

Your sanity is harder to get back than money or contacts. You are the magic. You are the art. You can't lose that.

My creativity is an entity unto its own.