William Allingham Quotes

I feel like the point of being an artist is to have your own voice: to do it the way you would do it and not the way anyone else would do it. If you're a strong enough writer, then that voice is going to come out all the time, and I can't stop it from coming out, no matter what I do.

You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, 'This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I'm doing the best I can - buy me or not - but this is who I am as a writer.

Be yourself. Don't imitate other poets. You are as important as they are.

It's hard work to find your own voice and not to copycat anything.

I've learnt that I've had the best results from just trying to be me, trying to make a movie or TV show I want to see or write a script I want to read, and that's really all I can offer - being authentic.

I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

And I think I have a distinct voice.

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.

I don't chase what I hear on the radio. I try not to compete with anybody.

I learned early in my writing career that if I try to tailor a song for someone else, I'm usually off base. They're usually looking for something from you with your character.

I can only be me. I have a hard time being a chameleon as a singer.

Any kind of creativity is not settling down into a happy little space. I don't try to be mellow or anything. I think I have quite... my voice is what it is, no matter what I'm singing, it's always going to sound like me. There's not too far I could go. I sound like myself. I hope that I haven't put any boundaries on anything.

Bernard Shaw said that when you copy yourself, you know you've got style. And I feel that if you can write like you write, then you are true to yourself. And it's not an easy thing to do - it's a disgustingly difficult thing to do.

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

Don't imitate. Write what you know about, that has to be your goal.

I wanted to come through with my own voice and, hopefully, have it affect people. I want people to know that I'm not an Elvis impersonator.

If you look at the common denominator of all the comics who have had big success, it's being true to their nature... that's what takes a long time to learn.

A lot of people have told me along the way that my style and the music I do... is unmarketable. But the only reason I'm successful is because I have stayed true to myself.

You develop a voice and a process that's unique to yourself.

When I was shopping around trying to get signed, I made it a point to say, 'This is who I am.' I dress the way I normally dress, and I just wanted to find a label that would accept me for that.

I'm not trying to make beats that are better than somebody else's. I'm trying to make beats that are genuine to me.

In expressing so completely his own type, Mr. Yeats presents us with the case for integrity. If we can express eventually our own scholastic mentality in verse, I believe that our art will lead us not towards, but away from, English art.

I can't just sing karaoke; I can't do anything to try to sound like other people. I have to find what I naturally sound like and emphasize that.

You can't say I don't sound like a N.Y. rapper - it's because I don't wanna sound like nobody else.

I'd rather have people dislike my style than change it. If someone says, 'Hey, Yngwie, you play too damn much,' I don't care. They way I play is the way I like to play. If people like it, great. If they don't, it's still fine with me.