Edward Ruscha Quotes

I just love that spirit that makes people do things that they probably shouldn't.

Everything I do, I do with reckless abandon.

I don't understand a way to work other than bold-facedly running towards failure.

I don't think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go.

Don't be afraid to be outrageous; the critics will shoot you down anyway.

You only get one life so you might as well make it a happy one, and that's why I tend to just jump into things. I'm sort of a fearless idiot that way.

If you are a 5-year-old, you just go ahead and try something. You don't think about it. You are just a little kid.

I'm pretty gutsy. Dancers don't think about things; they just do them.

I have swung on a flying trapeze, explored a glacier, and been hit in the face by a shark's tail while scuba diving. I like to throw myself fully into projects and adventures, which is probably how I managed to publish a book in the first place.

The truth is that I'm an idiot. I am. I don't do things by the rules sometimes. I say things that I probably shouldn't say. I push buttons. I deserve to be made fun of. And I feel like, as soon as you can make fun of something, it instantly removes the fear.

I love it when the director says, 'Rebel, just do whatever you want.' I'm, like, 'Yes!'

You can't be afraid. You have to be open. I feel like I've always been a leaper, and I've always leapt into things without thinking.

The album 'Cheers to the Fall' is really kind of me breaking out and being like, 'Listen, I don't care about criticism, and I don't care about possibility of failure. I'm going to do it. And if I do fail, well then, here's to it.'

My approach is just fearless. I'm not afraid to try anything.

Sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable. I remember at the very beginning actually, the first person I had to convince was myself really because there's a self-censorship. When everybody says 'we don't do silent movies anymore,' you agree with everybody, and you say 'yeah, you're right.' It was a fantasy.

I don't think that life happens by sitting back and waiting. People hold their cards so tight to their chest. Life is short. Tell people you love them. What's the worst that's going to happen?

That fundamentally undermines your ability to access the best part of your instincts. So my advice to those people would be stop thinking and introspecting so much and do a little more acting.

I only know how to play two ways: reckless and abandon.

The madness of youth made me unafraid.

Some people say I was very brave, but I really just didn't know any better. All I had was my originality.

People who take huge risks aren't afraid to fail. In fact, they love to fail. It's because failing means they found the edge.

Some people have more guts than brains.

I'm just going to let people watch whatever little movie they think our lives are and go for it.

I feel like you have to earn something with an audience. If I just did it now, I think producers on any superhero movie, I think they wouldn't trust me to do it the way I'd want to do it, because I'd want to do something basically really strange. I think you have to earn that freedom to do stuff like that. So I think, if I keep kind of chipping away, trying to do good movies and interesting, strange movies then people will eventually trust you to do that on a bigger scale.

The next time you are contemplating a decision in which you are debating whether or not to go for the gusto, ask yourself this important question: "How long am I going to be dead?" With that perspective, you can now make a free, fearless choice to do just about any goddamned sneaky thing your devious little mind can think up. Go ahead. Have your fun. You're welcome. Go on. See you in hell.