Lena Waithe Quotes

I like surprising myself. I don't want to do the norm, do what I'm always known to do, write how I like to write.

I'm someone who always wants to do everything differently. If I have a pattern, I'd rather I didn't have a pattern. I want every book to be unpredictable and new. Damn it!

I like to reinvent with each project, in any which way possible.

I love to play things that are out-of-the-box. It's just that I don't always get the chance to do it!

I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.

I always try to do something different. I don't think I've made the same record over and over.

I always want to surprise myself, more than anybody else.

I stray away from formulaic, the formatted.

If anyone ever tells me something doesn't go together, it makes me want to try it.

Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms.

I try not to do anything by formula.

I guess I much prefer the path of the contrarian: the guy who goes against the grain a bit. The careers of the people who I admire deeply - like the Coen brothers and Soderbergh - don't repeat themselves, and they make radically different films at times, and I think that's wonderful.

We're not ever interested in repeating ourselves or doing what people expect us to do, it's such a turn off.

If you want to be in the world I live in, which is a creative world with new ideas, then you've got to get away from the norm. You've got to go for it.

My remit has always been: I want to do something different from the last thing I've done.

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.

It's something I have always tried to do in my career - play outside the box.

You do not move forward by following convention. You celebrate those who are different, who are not burdened by 'normality.'

You can't put me in a box, because then it's just like, you're not gonna get anything.

I just wanted to make something in the world and worry about the rest of it later and not get too caught up in rules.

I don't have the same restrictions that other people do because I never painted myself into a corner. I've always done things that didn't necessarily fit the form. I've never felt limited in that respect in terms of songwriting.

As an actor, I still have to remind myself of daring to let go and not to repeat myself.

If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.

I think I'm always conscious of not letting things fit into a specific box. Being a filmmaker and trying to chart a career, you never want anyone to be able to pigeonhole you into one specific thing.

I want to do everything I can possibly do to step outside the box.