Randall Jarrell Quotes

Please don't try to make things nice! All the wrong notes are right. Just copy as I have -- I want it that way.

Imitation always stinks. When I take photos, I don't go back. I don't look at the past. I'm always original.

I didn't want to imitate anybody. Any movement I knew, I didn't want to use.

I am an artist who's just tryin' to do something different, and basically not caring about everybody's opinions and wanting to follow what everybody else is doing. At the same time, I know when to be serious, but I know when to joke.

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

I don't like playing standards. I like to do my own cutting edge work.

To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation.

I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing - even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.

Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character.

It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what's good enough and start creating art that matters.

People are imitative and imitation is bound to be unintelligent. They want to do exactly the things which others are doing. That destroys their freshness. Do things in your own style; live your life according to your own light. And even if the same situation arises, be alert to find a new response. It is only a question of a little alertness, and once you have started enjoying... and it is really a great joy to respond to old situations always in a new way, because that newness keeps you young, keeps you conscious, keeps you non-mechanical, keeps you alive.

I'm not very good at sounding like other people. When you're going through your 20's and trying to get a break and that kind of thing, and you're trying to do something that sounds like film music, your idea of what it would be, it never really worked out for me and it's only really when I learned to trust the fact that I could only really sound like me.

I was determined to carve out a music of my own. I didn't want to copy anybody.

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

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

I always try to be a trend setter. That's what I always tell young people when I'm giving them advice. To go with their heart and don't follow the trends.

I wanted each of my books to be very different from the others, each to be special and uncategorizable, and I knew I could only do that a few times before I was in danger of repeating myself.

I'm not trying to stay in the same place and I'm not trying to compete with what's currently in fashion. That would be dishonest. But, at the same time, I'm different and the music reflects that to some degree.

I really think that being yourself, being original, being outside the box is starting to be appealing to people.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

Rock is all about writing your own script; it's all about pioneering.

No, because I don't want to hear what's hot and feel I have to copy it. I'll just make up my own thing.

Find your own specific voice in filmmaking and go for it. Either people will get it or they won't and that's what it's all about.