Duane Michals Quotes

I went to grad school because I wanted to learn the rules so I would know how to break them. Breaking the rules is saying, 'I'm breaking in, OK? I'm breaking in your very comfortable little house over here, and I'm going to take a room.'

To blossom forth, a work of art must ignore or rather forget all the rules.

I don't have the same restrictions that other people do because I never painted myself into a corner. I've always done things that didn't necessarily fit the form. I've never felt limited in that respect in terms of songwriting.

I try to please people, to give them a good time, but I refuse to make my act conform to traditional show-biz standards of entertainment. There's a little voice that says, 'Oh, no, you can't do that, that's breaking all the rules.' That's the voice of show business. Then this other little voice says, 'Try it.' And most of the time, when the voice comes on and says, 'No,' that's the time it works.

Art isn't about following the rules. It's about breaking them.

Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula.

I never imagined myself doing a one-man show. If I'm going to do one, I'd rather do one that breaks all the rules.

When I came here it wasn't that I was anti-Music Row, but it was like I was going against the grain of what everybody on Music Row was doing, and that's what has made me successful.

Being an artist is in part an act of rupture.

To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.

One way we can enliven the imagination is to push it toward the illogical. We're not scientists. We don't always have to make the logical, reasonable leap.

Original thought, original artistic expression is by its very nature questioning, irreverent, iconoclastic.

There's poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don't like doing what people expect me to do.

I just try to get away with as much as I can. I don't think that's very radical in the art world.

I define myself by everything that I love, everything I can create, everything that I can imagine.

Pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable - to me, that's something I'm definitely interested in and want to pursue.

There are no rules in art.

My friend Harry Nilsson used to say the definition of an artist was someone who rode way ahead of the herd and was sort of the lookout. Now you don't have to be that, to be an artist. You can be right smack-dab in the middle of the herd. If you are, you'll be the richest.

I love anyone who breaks the rules, and musicians always break the rules - in an aggressive way.

I don't care about the rules. In fact, if I don't break the rules at least 10 times in every song then I'm not doing my job properly.

There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.

I'm trying to do different music, and I'm trying to be out of the box.

What people don't realize is that when you start making things outside of the convention of what is normal or good or 'best practices,' you're also shedding some of the baggage that comes with the concept of what a game 'should' be.

There are so many rules about how you make a film and so many conventions that you can and can't do. I think people have forgotten that they are just rules that were invented for convenience - sometimes it is more convenient not to obey the rules.

I think that anyone who is in any way creative or is creating something, whether an architect or fashion designer, I think if you have the opportunity to create something that is fully you, it frees your mind and your spirit and gives you the opportunity to really find yourself.