Henry David Thoreau Quotes

The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express. Something remains as a residuum of the commonplace itself, if one strikes out every commonplace in the expression.

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.

You can take things that Jimi Hendrix took, from Curtis Mayfield or from Buddy Guy for example, because we are all children of everything, even Picasso. But if you want to stand out, you have to learn to crystallize your existence and create your own fingerprints.

I'm always trying to find something unique or a project that I can do something unique in.

My early experiences in animation taught me that following someone else is not a great idea.

Everything I do is me. I don't like taking ideas from people unless they're the G.O.A.T.

I get that there is no one quite like me, nor should there be anybody quite like anybody else in any field. I've always said, 'Don't be the next anyone; be the first you.'

Like the greats, you want to make your own story yourself, and not be a copy of another.

Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to years of indiscretion, (so let me speak,) snatches the pen, and blots out nature's mark of separation, cancels her kind intention, destroys all mental individuality. The lettered world no longer consists of singulars: it is a medley, a mass; and a hundred books, at bottom, are but one.

Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.

Write about what makes you different.

To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation.

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.

Creativity is seeing what everyone else sees, but then thinking a new thought that has never been thought before and expressing it somehow. It could be with art, a sculpture, music or even in science. The difference, however, between scientific creativity and any other kind of creativity, is that no matter how long you wait, no one else will ever compose "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony" except for Beethoven. No matter what you do, no one else will paint Van Gogh's "Starry Night." Only Van Gogh could do that because it came from his creativity.

Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared.

I feel like there's no real innovation in having some music. It's more just unique personalities and unique expressions, and you being able to tell your story.

Style means you have a real curiosity about yourself and then you express it. Having style is not copying somebody else.

Imitation has to be avoided. Understanding should be the only law, never imitation.

I'm still doing me. I try to come up with different concept for my shows, you gotta keep the people interested, but I'm still me.

I just sit there and try to think of stuff that I could do that's a little different but still not step outside of who I am.

I didn't want to imitate anybody. Any movement I knew, I didn't want to use.

Do not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings.

It’s so important to create in your own voice, to hold onto what makes you unique, and have faith in your vision.

Creativity is very self-indulgent.

Do the stuff that only you can do. The urge, starting out, is to copy. And that's not a bad thing. Most of us only find our own voices after we've sounded like a lot of other people. But the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That's the moment you may be starting to get it right.