Gus Van Sant Quotes

Imitation is a caricature. Any imitation. Find out for yourself.

There were times in my career when I would try to write songs like Bob Dylan... Artists get hooked up in that. To be a follower, you lose.

When I teach writing, I have a mantra: 'Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.'

I couldn't imitate anyone if I wanted to.

If you try to create someone else's performance, it becomes a facsimile of a facsimile.

I thought that from the moment someone else could do the same as myself, there was no difference between the pictures and they should not be signed. Afterwards I realized it was not so and began to sign my pictures again. Picasso had begun again anyhow.

I didn't want to feel like I was mimicking or copying someone else's performance, whether it's subconscious or not.

Art is great only when it bears the stamp of the individual.

I realized that I could try to sound like Waylon Jennings, or I could try to be like Waylon Jennings... but it's impossible to do both.

I never tried to emulate my father. Anyone trying to do that would be a second-rate carbon copy.

To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

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

What I've learned is that it's okay to take from heroes, such as Debussy, but it has to be filtered through my own personality so that ultimately it's me.

The best imitation in the world is not half as good as a poor original.

I'm not going to be Rihanna. No one can be Rihanna except for Rihanna.

The thing I try to tell people who are just starting in the business is to listen to yourself, trust yourself, and be kind to yourself. And do the work to cultivate who you are and what your point of view is. Don't try to be like anybody else. That's what will make you an interesting artist.

This is my real concern: to give each film a unique individuality.

You have to add something of yourself to the portrayal.

I'm not a mimic.

The way I work is not the way that you work, and the whole point of any creative act is that. What I have to offer is me, what you have to offer is you, and if you offer yourself with authenticity and generosity I will be moved.

There are lots of artists in the world. But there's only one you. And the only person who has your point of view is you. If you decide not to make things, all you've done is deprive the world of all the stuff that only you could have brought to it.

I really approached the film as if it was a white big piece of paper and I was going to draw a picture on it. And whether that picture was good or bad, whatever people thought of it, what they could never take away was that it was my picture.

Do not imitate one another's style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.

Imitation is for shirkers, like-minded-ness for the comfort lovers, unifying for the creators.

It's hard work to find your own voice and not to copycat anything.