Jonas Mekas Quotes

No artist is normal. Who happen to be normal cannot be an artist.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

Try to keep the rebel artist alive in you, no matter how attractive or exhausting the temptation.

The individual - man as a man, man as a brain, if you like - interests me more than what he makes because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves.

It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.

I want to be an artist you cannot categorize at all. You can't put a box around me. You can't put anything around me.

I know that whatever I put out, whether people think it's pop or noise or whatever, it's always going to be some kind of a freak or mutation. It's not going to be anything pure that a lot of people will relate to. And that's fine.

The artist is called a creator.

Artists should never look at pictures, but should stutter in a language of their own.

Don't worry about trying to develop a style. Style is what you can't help doing. If you write enough, you draw enough, you'll have a style, whether you want it or not. Don't worry about whether you're "commercial". Tell your own stories, draw your own pictures. Let other people follow you.

Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.

All art is based on non-conformity.

You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it.

I am an artist who's just tryin' to do something different, and basically not caring about everybody's opinions and wanting to follow what everybody else is doing. At the same time, I know when to be serious, but I know when to joke.

To be an artist, you have to nurture the things that most people discard.

I remember when I was in art classes, I hated following the assignments. And I would get in trouble for doing something totally different or taking it in a weird direction.

I get a kick out of being an outsider constantly. It allows me to be creative.

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

The thing that makes a creative person is to be creative and that is all there is to it.

Mainstream to me equals boring, so I don't want to be doing that.

I'm an artist. Artists don't need permission to work. Regardless of whether I'm acting or not, I write. I write when I'm tired in fact, because I believe your most pure thoughts surface.

Most artists like to think of themselves as rugged individualists, as independent characters.

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.

No one was creating and I always wanted to be created on.

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?