Mike Patton Quotes

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

I'm a little insane, and I'm going to be a little different. But hopefully, somewhere in there, in that creative arena, something will emerge that is new and different and unique.

All art is based on non-conformity.

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 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'm not the average artist.

Anyway I feel myself a bit on the edge on the art world, but I don't mind, I'm just pursuing my work in a very excited way. And there isn't really a mainstream anymore, is there?

I just don't like to do a lot of the normal things expected of other artists. I'm not trying to be difficult; I'm just trying to stick with what it is I want to do.

I always had that sense of being censored for the things that I thought. Why is it wrong to embroider your pants, or paint with acrylics on your clothing? Why is that weird? Isn't it weirder to want to be like everyone else?

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

They're never gonna not put you in a box. It's something that they have to do, because nine times out of 10 people don't understand creativity.

People classify things and that's fair enough. But if somebody wants to make something different, that doesn't make them any less of an artist.

I'm an artist. I'm a musician. I'm not someone you can put in a box.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

I think, as an artist, part of your job is being aware of what's going on around you and not selling out and not following the trend, which I'm totally against.

I learned to embrace my individuality, and if that meant writing a song on one chord over and over again, then that's what I do.

My eccentricity became direction.

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

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

I'm so proud to be on a Kate Bush record; she's always marched to the beat of her own drum.

It can be frightening to turn your back on what others think is right. But I'm not the same as a lot of people - I'm quite artistic and quite eccentric sometimes. If you honour that, you fit into yourself better - and people accept you for what you are.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I'd hate it if everyone in the world liked me, my music and what I wore. It'd make it boring, and I wouldn't have anything to work towards. It's not to everyone's taste, but I can only be me.

Any kind of creativity is not settling down into a happy little space. I don't try to be mellow or anything. I think I have quite... my voice is what it is, no matter what I'm singing, it's always going to sound like me. There's not too far I could go. I sound like myself. I hope that I haven't put any boundaries on anything.