Duane Michals Quotes

We don't have to live up to the expectations of others. Passion is personal. As long as our passion is fueled with the right stuff then keep on plodding forward. I'll never be Mark Twain or Tom Clancy. But that's okay, because neither of them could teach you to mix a boundless number of grays, or where to place the catch light in a portrait.

Be yourself, find out what you love, find out what you really want to do, and go do it. And don't depend on people who don't have your best interests at heart.

I dont ever want to do anything mediocre. I hear the music in the charts and I dont mean to be rude, but those people have no soul. Learning from music is like eating a meal - you have to pace yourself. You cant take everything from it all at once. I want to be different, definitely. Im not a one trick pony. Im at least a five-trick pony.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

The most important thing we can tell young people is not to be an imitation of somebody else. That their life is special. They are the creator of their life and their way and find something that they enjoy doing that doesn't even feel like work. It feels like a passion. And then just by doing that and bringing that to the world, they become architects of change.

Someone else who liked what I did might turn around and say, "She's reworking and rethinking everything. She could just be making blankets now, and be a lot wealthier." I'm actually making it difficult for myself. I wouldn't call it re-branding. If I get bored with my work, then other people will - it's that simple. And I'm not gonna get bored with what I'm doing. I'll struggle and fight and do new things to excite myself - and do it in my own sweet way.

I'm just excited that I get to put out the music I love versus music just for the sake of it.

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.

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.

Just don't hate on anybody; just do what you, you know what I'm saying? Just do you. Just work at it, keep workin' at it.

Just trying to be different - when I hear something - I don't like to go trampling on other people's sounds.

It hasn't always been easy, but you get to a point where you're not doing the solo stuff with any kind of expectation in terms of commercial or a business outcome, you're doing it because you believe in this.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.

I was always a creative child. I also liked to paint and draw. All those years of doing those types of things, I was grateful I had those experiences because it changed my life later on. I know they weren't acceptable for what society assumed a boy should do, but I think its just your passion, it's what you're drawn to.

My goal is to not fit in. My worst nightmare is being the baby version of another artist.

When you identify with an organization and you want to do stuff [but] you get this inexplicable 'no' - a lot of people get off the end and think, Well, God must have said no to me. No! The organization just said no to you. Find what it is that you were made to do and get on it! Go do what you were made to do.

What I tell people is be the best version of yourself in anything that you do. You don't have to live anybody else's story.

If you are just yourself, that's when people start gravitating towards you because nobody else can be you except you. Be authentic, don't give up, and start today.

As long as I continue to hear 'normal' people telling me I am too childish, I know I'm doing just fine.

The biggest advice is being true to what you want to do. Don't worry if other people understand it or don't understand it. If what you're doing has merit, it will find its way.

I had been in a place where I was letting too many people dictate who I should be and what I should be, and I was trying to make everybody happy to the point where it was just killing me. I'd completely lost myself. It's kind of funny now that people think I've completely changed myself for Marilyn Manson, when this is actually the first time in my life that I took a stand and said, "This is who I am and this is who I've always wanted to be, and I'm finally with somebody who lets me be who I want to be."

You are being suffocated by tradition... Why don't you say, 'I am going to build a life for myself, for my time, and make it a work of art'? Your life isn't a work of art ---it's a thirdhand Victorian whatnot shelf, complete with someone else's collection of seashells and hand-carved elephants.

The secret is to remain true to your aesthetic vision, so that people can see that you really believe passionately in what you are doing. That way, they can relate to your style. At the same time, you experiment-you try new things.

And it occurred to him that there were two parts to being a better person. One part was thinking about other people. The other part was not giving a toss what other people thought.

My working life is me doing what I want to do. This is that. I've made movies that people don't go to see.