Jan Morris Quotes

You can say, 'I am a poet, rock-climbing shaman, and my name is Hiawatha Moonbeam,' and people in America will say, 'Hey, that's great. All power to you, man'.

I never liked feeling like the world needed to have labels on everything, whether it's people or categories of music. I think everyone should be what they want to be, and you shouldn't have to look a certain way in order to fit this mold or that mold.

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

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.

People must insist on the right to say no, to be alone, to stand out from the herd. Creative artists can say all this in their own way and in their own field, by hard, rigorous work.

I don't like to be labeled, to be anything. I've made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it's counter-productive.

San Francisco has always been a haven for misfits and weirdos. I'm both of those, which is why I came here.

Like most creative people I don't fit well into boxes.

My music is not really about one ideology. It's not about one truth.

I do not want to work to correspond to an image.

I'd just like to inspire people to be themselves and do what they want and not conform to the rigid guidelines of the music or entertainment business.

I want to be free to be any version of me I feel like being. I don't want to be McDonald's that serves the same food every time.

People often say, 'You don't go to fashion shows? What kind of photographer are you? What the hell is the wrong with you, man?' But that's what I need in order to be who I am.

It isn't till now, in the American Century, as we have recklessly dubbed it, that tribal pressures toward conformity have been brought to bear so ruthlessly upon men and women seeking to work creatively.

The wonderful thing about being an artist in L.A. is that there is no taste. There's anarchy of taste, which seems good to me.

All my close friends are non-conformist. To say 'misfits' sounds bad, but there is something positive about being a little on the outside - it gives you an interesting perspective on things - and I think that's something Robyn and I share.

My parents took a fairly liberal approach at raising me, always encouraging me to be creative and free-thinking.

The diversity of perspective, the unwillingness to generalise - those are good traits in countries as they are in art.

If we can make more diverse colors, people, stories, it will be interesting. Uniforms are for the military and the police, not for our thinking.

Some artists say 'Don't categorize me.' I'm saying 'You can't categorize me.'

I think I have kind of have the same mind-set that Kanye West has. He just likes to do his thing.

Sometimes I get a lot of stuff, being in Houston, being in a conservative place, and wearing weird stuff that I wear. People don't get it sometimes. I like it.

Punk is all about doing what you want and being yourself. And that's what rap is too.

I don't think that people should be confined to any particular aesthetic.

It's really tough to make a name for yourself without compromising and without fitting yourself into a real specific mold. When I made the choice that I would be involved in every aspect of music and not necessarily make music for radio or MTV, I was saying, 'OK, this is me. You decide who it is.'