Brian Eno Quotes

I never thought I was normal, never tried to be normal.

There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behaviour and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity.

I think trying to be offbeat is the most boring thing possible.

I think giving yourself permission to be weird is amazing. After all what does it mean to be normal?

I've definitely accepted the fact that I'm not normal.

Now I'm old... maybe I'm still an eccentric hippie. There's a wonderful freedom in the eccentricity - you can go places, you can be wacky, and you don't have to be constrained. I think that's why people are eccentric - eccentricity is a weapon... and it's great!

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

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.

I have a really, really, really normal family. And by normal I mean we're all nuts on some level. I think you've gotta be a little nuts to pursue any kind of creative job. I was also a really good kid. I know that sounds really dull, but I didn't rebel in the traditional sense.

I get a kick out of not being ideal. I think it's awesome. That's entirely the point. And I think my creator is quite a character for letting that be.

No, I'm a very normal and orthodox person that goes out of their way to present eccentricity. It's not that I do that so much now but I've been doing it for so many years that it's become routine now.

I don't want to be a cookie-cutter-poster-boy-bubble-gum-chewing fighter.

I think that being precious and rock and roll should never go together.

I just feel like I'm such a normal person in an industry that is so chaotic and crazy. I am what I am, and I can't change it. And I don't want to change it.

I'm appealing to people who want something different, but the world, on the whole, doesn't really embrace different things. Not on the whole.

I pride myself on not being run of the mill. I don't want to be your umpteenth Fantine in 'Les Miz.'

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.

I just don't conform very well.

I just am who I am. And then when people label me eccentric or different, I'm kind of astonished because I think, 'This is completely normal. This is just how I am, it's how I've always been.'

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

No more pronouncements on lousy verse. No more hidden competition. No more struggling not to be a square.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

I was trying to be this person who is cool, eternally rocking.

I'm not unusual; it's the others who are strange.

Normal is fading away. Governments and industries and schools like normal, because it's easier, it scales and it's profitable. But people don't like it - we want to be who we are, not who some marketer tells us to be.