Mike D Quotes

If you stick with a vision, it might not all work, but some of it will be absolute genius. To me, 15 minutes worth of absolute genius in a film is so much better than two hours of mediocrity. I would rather pay to see something different like that.

As far as creation goes, you just really have to not overthink and just create and be confident. If you think it's tight, then the world is going to think it's tight.

Creativity has got to have some edge to it, doesn't it?

Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks.

But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different.

You need to have tremendous confidence in your work, even a touch of arrogance, chutzpah. Many very fine researchers lack intellectual daring. It's human nature to want to be cozy, secure. But that can be a cul de sac.

I'm a creative person, and I'm gonna be creative, so whoever's upset because of that, that's too bad.

Boldness in itself is genius.

I think I have some interesting things to say and I don't think anybody out there is saying them.

My advice to female directors is not to wait until you feel like your ideas have been pre-certified or until you think you've gotten some approval for them. Then it's too late! Follow your gut. That's hard to do, but the only way to be original.

My respect for artists is very high. I think to get the most out of them, you have to liberate them. I think part of liberating them is saying, 'Come up with something brilliant, new, and fresh. Stop thinking based on what has been beat into you by executives or publishers in terms of what's going to work and what's not. Don't react, just act.'

I love Lady Gaga. She's not afraid to take risks and be herself.

Each single gesture of art must be daring. One must not be concerned with the side-effects.

Have fun. Do something nobody else had done before, or has done since.

I'm never worried about being upstaged. I love to have the best, most individual people come in and see if we hit on something.

It's all about risk-taking when you're making an album. Don't be scared to do weird things sometimes.

If you are going to do something truly innovative, you have to be someone who does not value social approval. You can't need social approval to go forward. Otherwise, how would you ever do the thing that you are doing?

Since I was in my early twenties, at ABC, I was always only interested in things that were not already being done.

It's so important to me that I feel like I'm doing something that's never been done before, whether that's in the show, or I'm writing a song. I can exist in this little box here, but I have to do something new with it.

There's no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist.

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out.

Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn't been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that's really worthwhile.

I always wanted to be really experimental.

I was very into making the Big Artistic Statement - it had to be innovative; it had to be cutting edge. I was desperately keen on being original.