Charles de Lint Quotes

Listening to others does not mean you should sound like them; find your own voice by telling stories as authentically as possible.

When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about.

Nowadays I think it's really important that designers are really unique and individual.

Find your own specific voice in filmmaking and go for it. Either people will get it or they won't and that's what it's all about.

I'm not gonna do the same, tired, standard 'I was born in a log cabin...' kind of book. There's so much more I want to do.

There are so many funny people and so many talented people, but the one thing nobody else has is my take on the world. So, when I'm developing my show, that's going to be the focus.

Every artist seems to me to have the job of bearing witness to the world we live in. To some extent I think of all of us as artists, because we have voices and we are each of us unique.

Covers are always so fun to do, but there's nothing like telling your own story.

I like to tell my own story using my personality and my insight, the way I see things.

The key to artistry is being able to say stuff the way other people can't.

You can only write your own vision.

Art is such a personal experience, I really try to make my own thing.

I write 100% of my material by myself. That's really important to me because I don't want what I'm trying to say to be diluted by anyone that might not know my circumstance or who I am as a person.

Right away, I knew I didn't want to have that look of other guys with long hair and bell-bottom pants, because everybody else had that look. I kind of adopted my boarding-school look, which made me stand out. Then the next thing you know, the first song on my first record is a song called "School Days." It's about going to the boarding school I went to. So then I just started to write about myself. The very first song I ever wrote was about a guy I met in a boatyard that we were working in. So I've always had this thing about sticking to more or less what I knew.

The writer's genetic inheritance and her or his experiences shape the writer into a unique individual, and it is this uniqueness that is the writer's only stuff for sale.

I feel like the point of being an artist is to have your own voice: to do it the way you would do it and not the way anyone else would do it. If you're a strong enough writer, then that voice is going to come out all the time, and I can't stop it from coming out, no matter what I do.

I think no one but me has the right to write about my life as I want to write it in a particular way. I don't think any other person will be able to tell the story of my life like how I have approached it. It works best when it's written by someone who has experienced it herself.

And I think I have a distinct voice.

Every movie has its uniqueness. You just do your best and go with it.

Whatever is about you that is translated into your art, that's gonna keep you completly original and fresh and I just think that, that's just the best advice I can give, to an artist creatively.

I think original voices get noticed. But most importantly, I think you should have a story to tell.

Making art is different for everyone.

In stand-up it really helps to play yourself and talk about your own feelings. You cannot fail to be original if you're just talking about what you think about X, Y and Z. Unless you've got a twin brother who's also a stand-up.

I love to write. I used to be a math teacher. And I like the idea that other people could write about the same subjects, but no one would write it just the way I do. It's very individual: a child could write the same story as somebody else, but it wouldn't come out the same.

I learned early in my writing career that if I try to tailor a song for someone else, I'm usually off base. They're usually looking for something from you with your character.