Robert Henri Quotes

I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

An artist is always out of step with the time. He has to be.

Art isn't about following the rules. It's about breaking them.

All art is based on non-conformity.

A true artist is always out of his time.

A lot of singers find a musical genre people like and stick with it. That's being a conformist. I sing ballads, rock, salsa, rap.

Rock is all about writing your own script; it's all about pioneering.

I was always a rebel in the sense that I always wanted to go my own road and do something that nobody else has done.

I always say that in my career as an actress, I've always worked with people like David Lynch or Guy Maddin or Peter Weir who are considered not mainstream directors and that could be because they are like my dad. They are pioneers, and pioneers, by definition, invent something new.

I do strive to find projects that are trying to carve out some new space. I enjoy projects that leap away from the crowd a little bit.

The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.

Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

The punk era, at its best, celebrated questioning the norm and the promotion of originality. Both concepts have always resonated with me.

Creative instinct is personal.

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.

I dont ever want to do anything mediocre. I hear the music in the charts and I dont mean to be rude, but those people have no soul. Learning from music is like eating a meal - you have to pace yourself. You cant take everything from it all at once. I want to be different, definitely. Im not a one trick pony. Im at least a five-trick pony.

Pioneering is the work of individuals.

I didn't go to guitar school and I don't know how to play chords, but I can do it in my own way and I think sometimes that will piss off some guitar players who sit around playing their stuff all day long and then there are people who like that.

The weird set an example for the rest of us. They raise the bar. They show us through their actions that in fact we're wired to do the new, not to comply with someone a thousand miles away.

Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)

To rebel or revolt against the status quo is in the very nature of an artist.

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.

Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

You have to be original. The people creating a buzz on YouTube are taking risks, and they're doing something different. I like it when 15 year-olds come on and tell me what to do rather than the other way around.