Don McLean Quotes

There were times in my career when I would try to write songs like Bob Dylan... Artists get hooked up in that. To be a follower, you lose.

We love playing music but we're too weird to play music.

It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.

The minute you succumb to outside pressure, you cease to be creative.

I didn't want to look like anyone else - like Janis Joplin or Grace Slick. That's why I never went to any of the big designers.

My shaven head is my way of saying 'I wont take no for an answer,' it is my way of saying 'I believe in my creativity and artistry.'

Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality.

I don't want to look exactly the same in everything I do. And if I'm not identifiable, then that can be a blessing or a curse. But I'm fine with it. Because at the end of the day, I'm still working, and I'm enjoying what I do.

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

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.

My early experiences in animation taught me that following someone else is not a great idea.

All artists are equal when they are themselves.

When Ariana Grande was starting out, everyone was like, 'You're just like Mariah Carey!' She inspires me so much because she just kept going and made her own name, and no one even says that anymore.

Comedy has allowed me to be my 100-percent-true self, as opposed to other places, where I feel like that's been a hindrance. Whether it's music or poetry or hosting, people want you to be something else: they want you to be packaged in a certain way.

I don't want to be trending. Instead of pursuing ideas of being more radio-friendly and... commercial, I want to go harder at being more creative.

For some, being involved in a scene is a great thing because the social element can drive creativity. For me, though, it's never really been like that. It's the opposite. I've always had this instinct to escape.

Sheryl Crow. I loved her 'Tuesday Night Music Club.' She expressed her own point of view, and she wasn't trying to be like anyone else, and I loved that. That's been the thinking of all my favorite artists.

Holding on to some of your uniqueness is the trick instead of surrendering it at the Academy of Contemporary We're Gonna Make You a Star.

They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint like somebody else, quite oblivious of the fact that if either of them did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist.

I didn't want to imitate anybody. Any movement I knew, I didn't want to use.

It is important to foster individuality, for only the individual can produce the new ideas.

Each musical finds its own way.

Each artist comes to the painting or sculpture because there he can be told that he, the individual, transcends all classes and flouts all predictions. In the work of art, he finds his uniqueness confirmed.

What's the point of rap if you can't be yourself, huh?

I can say this much with confidence - that I now have a sound of my own