Chuck D Quotes

I'm very selfish. I make music that I love because I only live once, and I'm an artist. I don't try to revolt against anybody, and I don't try to please anybody. I feel very strongly that I if love it, someone else will love it - not everybody, though.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

I'm American. I'm eclectic. I'm going to follow my musical passions. And if people don't like it, and it hurts my legacy, I'm not going to worry about that.

I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.

Let's embrace being not normal!

I wasn't intentionally trying to be different, but that was an element of what I naturally do that happened to be unique enough to spark a curiosity for people.

All of my favorite artists who inspired me were never afraid to be uncool and never afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves - no matter how much flak they took for it.

What's the fun in doing conventional things? I would rather be known as someone who is unconventional. I like being unconventional. I like doing things which are different. That's what I like... It gives me a boost as an actor.

I'm certainly not who people think I am. I always do whatever I want to do, and my films are personal to me.

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 like to be against the odds.

People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.

I feel like the point of being an artist is to have your own voice: to do it the way you would do it and not the way anyone else would do it. If you're a strong enough writer, then that voice is going to come out all the time, and I can't stop it from coming out, no matter what I do.

If you're trying to do something different, you can't ask someone to help, because they'll want to make it not different.

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 don't care what people do. I don't care how people remember my albums. I do them for my own reasons.

I love Lady Gaga. She's not afraid to take risks and be herself.

I mean, if I was living to please people, I'd have never been in a band at all. I wouldn't have anything awesome around. I'd just be bored.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel - not the way others think you should feel.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not always trying to stand out.

It's dangerous to think too much about how a film will be received. Filmmaking is not a popularity contest. Some would disagree.

I think if I'm controversial it's not because I set out to be. It's because I've never felt comfortable being part of someone else's mainstream community.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.

I've never been one to sit back and go, 'I'd better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don't want to lose them.'