David Allan Coe Quotes

As long as you're true to you, you believe it and you make others believe it, then what you're doing is just art. If you give everybody a blank canvas and some paint, not everybody's picture is going to be exactly the same, but it's still art. I just do what I do.

You should be able to do you. That's what differentiates an artist from a singer.

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.

The businessman says 'If I don't do it first, somebody else will.' The artist says 'If I don't do it first, nobody else will.'

I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.

There are so many funny people and so many talented people, but the one thing nobody else has is my take on the world. So, when I'm developing my show, that's going to be the focus.

To me, what makes an artist is a unique personality that they're not afraid to let show.

It is true that everything has been said, but not everyone has said it.

I like to create something that's unique and kind of true to myself and authentic and everything. I don't really like to mirror myself after different artists.

I am always updating and coming up with something fresh, whether it's a colour, a trend, or a design, as my uncle always taught me to be unique and different.

Creative instinct is personal.

The way I work is not the way that you work, and the whole point of any creative act is that. What I have to offer is me, what you have to offer is you, and if you offer yourself with authenticity and generosity I will be moved.

There are lots of artists in the world. But there's only one you. And the only person who has your point of view is you. If you decide not to make things, all you've done is deprive the world of all the stuff that only you could have brought to it.

As an aspiring artist, you should strive for originality of vision. Have something to say and a fresh way of saying it. No story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it’s not the work of the imagination.

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.

Of all the songs that I've written since I was 15 or 16, every song is different every song is special, it happens in a different way and I like that.

I had no reason to want to copy anybody else. What I wanted to give audiences for the few minutes that I thought my career would last was something unique.

You can't be unique any way. Music is made from seven notes. You will always come back to something. Even if you think you are unique, you will come back to something that existed before you were doing what you are doing.

If you let other people's vision get between the world and your own, you will achieve that extremely common and worthless thing, a pictorial photograph.

One must not imitate what one wants to create.

I couldn't say there is a formula to songwriting. Each time is a unique experience.

Make your own music. It can be done.

I never said to be like me, I say to be like you and make a difference.

I'm constantly trying to be as original as I can.

I'd rather have people really be able to step back and get their money's worth and look at me as a true artist than somebody who is just regurgitating other material.