Ben Webster Quotes

Express who you are in a world where everyone is the same.

Don't be imitators. The mind is an imitator, because it is easier to play the game of imitation than to become authentically true. Many ideas have been given to you: become like a Buddha, become like Jesus. become like Krishna - as if you have to become everybody else EXCEPT yourself. As if God is only against you. He's for Krishna, for Christ, for Mahavir, for Buddha - only against you. Then why does He create you? Then He seems simply foolish. Why does He go on creating you? If He's interested in Buddha, Hc can create Buddhas. Why you?

I feel like it's important, especially at young age, to find exactly what it is that makes your style so important as opposed to just trying to fit into the iconic styles of performers out there.

I've never really tried to copy anyone; I like to have my own style.

No one can write like Vallejo and not sound like a fraud. He's just too much himself and not you.

The more you see somebody else's version of something, the harder it is to make it your own.

I want to express myself but, at the same time, still be special and different.

My biggest challenge in my career is not looking or sounding like anybody.

Born Originals, how comes it to pass that we die Copies?

You can't try to be somebody you're not; that's not style.

Fashion says 'Me too', and style says 'Only me'.

Style is something each of us already has, all we need to do is find it.

I don't think you can separate a person's "style" and his persona. If you're writing or improvising honestly, you will inevitably reflect who you are.

The greatest fear people have is that of being themselves. They want to be 50 Cent or someone else. They do what everyone else does even if it doesn’t fit where and who they are. But you get nowhere that way; your energy is weak and no one pays attention to you. You’re running away from the one thing that you own – what makes you different. I lost that fear. And once I felt the power that I had by showing the world I didn’t care about being like other people, I could never go back.

I'm a smart enough person to know that I don't want everyone to be cookie-cutter versions of the nine guys who wear Converse sneakers.

The essence of a sound style is that it cannot be reduced to rules-that it is a living and breathing thing with something of the devilish in it-that it fits its proprietor tightly yet ever so loosely, as his skin fits him. It is, in fact, quite as seriously an integral part of him as that skin is. . . . In brief, a style is always the outward and visible symbol of a man, and cannot be anything else.

Don't be someone else's slogan because you are poetry.

To lead is to be yourself in a world of clones

Be true to yourself. Establish your own style and stick to it.

It's hard work to find your own voice and not to copycat anything.

I'm not even sure I have a style! All I know for sure is I don't want to look like everyone else.

I think that my father would find it so confusing that people want to imitate him. Not because he didn't have confidence in who he was, but because he never imitated anybody. He was his own person.

The only thing I really recommend, if you're starting out in stand-up is to not try to copy anybody else. You can be influenced by people. I was influenced by Steve Martin and Bob Newhart and Woody Allen, but I never tried to be someone else. I always tried to be myself. And the reason people are successful is they're unique.

The more time we invest imitating others, the less that's available to discover and be ourselves.

I always say that I don't like it when people follow trends too much, just because it is on the runway. I think what you wear really does need to reflect what your own personal style is.