Charles Mingus Quotes

You have to be who you are when you do music.

I think I'm just doing me, my music, my shows, and my stories.

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.

Music is such an intensely personal thing for me, and I knew if I was going to do it, it would be in my own way.

I can't really change the games I like to make, and I can't change my own particular aesthetic.

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.

The whole point in developing your own style is to find your own voice.

A musician should only sound like what they do, and no two musicians sound the same. It's an individual-feel thing, you know?

The only thing I want to be defined by is my music and personality.

Some people say I'm conscious, some say I'm a gangsta rapper - it's just me doing me. I'm stomping in my own lane. I'm doing what I do.

I kind of always wanted my own music to just sound like, like me, I suppose, like if I was music it would be the music I make, I think.

I have many musical inspirations, but I would really love to just be me. My very own artist.

I think this, I think basically I'm not interested in people following my work or making work like my work.

I think that, as artists, all we can do is be who we are. I think that if we do that, then we're automatically not anyone else.

I play a certain style. I'm not willing to compromise that part of me.

I'm definitely one of them artists that loves putting the track on and having fun with it, but in my own way.

I'm just trying to be myself - make music how I make music.

The more people do hear my music, they do realize that I'm being true to myself. So there is that conflict, but I think more and more, people are realizing I'm just being me.

I think you just have to be yourself instead of catering your sound to a specific audience, make the music you want to make, and the audience will find you.

I am very much my own person and my own artist.

I don't necessarily think the way people do, but that's not my problem. My problem is not to reinforce or destroy any ideas anyone might have about me, how I do what I do, what my intentions are, the way that I do it. My only job, as far as I can see, is to do the music that I want to do.

Especially as an artist, the creative freedom we have makes us who we are. We're human beings-we're gonna mess up sometimes. I definitely feel like people should continue being who they are. As long as you're staying true to who you are, that's super important.

When the individuality of the artist begins to express itself, what the artist gains in the way of liberty he loses in the way of order.

Don't be a prisoner of your own style!

It's just me and I try to be myself when I'm singing.