Pankaj Mishra Quotes

As far as expectations go, you can never work for expectations. You have to work against them.

I've always shied away from conventional wisdom, though I know the power of it.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

When you're used to being prepared to reject conventional wisdom, it leaves you open to learn more.

We've never tried to fit any mould because we already broke the one we started.

We need the disruption of categories that lead us to abandon the difficult, the disagreeable, and the least likely to go very far.

I am a leader, so leaders always get heat. They're always going against the grain. Jimi Hendrix got heat; Bob Marley got heat; Miles Davis got heat. Every great artist got heat. Heat means you're doing something right.

Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom.

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.

All I really want to do is things I haven't done. 'I'm gonna put a paper bag on my head and be on the cover of 'Billboard,' see what I can get away with - if they'll let me.' And they let me. And I am literally giggling inside for, like, a month that I got away with it.

The key to me is being different not for the sake of being different, but being the most authentic version of what you do. And definitely it takes a willingness to be different, because there was resistance for me early on, and I feel like that's usually the case when there's a certain paradigm or trend happening, and you step outside of that.

A famous man once said, 'A sure formula for failure is to try and please everyone.' Some might say I built a career on doing just the opposite of pleasing everyone.

New ideas that fly in the face of conventional wisdom of the day are always greeted with doubt and scorn, even fear.

You may confuse a lot of people when going against the grain of conventional thinking, and that's perfectly okay. As an entrepreneur, standing up for your vision to your family and friends might possibly be the best practice you will get for the life that awaits you.

Somewhere in the world, someone is doing something that you decided couldn't be done.

By all means break the rules.

I'm someone who's done the opposite of whatever the received wisdom is, to keep your career going into your 50s.

Every film has to be the next something else; originality isn't celebrated because you can't market it.

My company and people think I'm wacky when I have an idea... I know if I have an idea, no one will want to go through it. But if I persist, people will go through it.

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

Hip-hop can be limiting and I refuse to accept limits.

I've always been controversial because I offer new ideas. For me to be controversial, I think this is positive.

I've never liked categories; I've never liked boxes; I've always tried to be unconventional as much as I possibly could.

I have a certain temperament, a disposition that I think lends itself to not playing outside the lines that much. But I do test the boundaries, certainly, and break one or two of my own. Some people are mystified by it, but not me.

I think I'm always trying to subvert conventions, and sometimes it's more successful than others.