Richard Florida Quotes

I was very into making the Big Artistic Statement - it had to be innovative; it had to be cutting edge. I was desperately keen on being original.

I started out as an opportunistic renegade. By now, I've lasted long enough to become sort of an American Original Respectable Renegade.

Eccentric is a difficult word because it's come to mean crazy. Avant-garde would be better. Eccentric is not "centric" in terms of having a center. Because sometimes it's used in a derogatory context.

I always related most to Steve McQueen because he was more of an outcast than Robert Redford or Paul Newman.

At the end of the day, you want to be always the one that's one step ahead of everybody, and when it comes to hip-hop, culture and art, you want to be that signature guy.

The funny thing is, the music that I'm writing now is probably some of the most cutting edge we've ever done. The music that I'm thinking about putting on our next album.

My show was revolutionary, ground-breaking. When I came on the scene, people were not doing a thing.

Bruce is the man. He was definitely ahead of his time.

I'm a maverick. I've always been a maverick.

Of all the labels and tags and epithets people have forced upon me, there's one I don't dislike. I get called the 'enfant terrible.' In every article, it's always there. So I have to give that a meaning.

The people who are interested in my work - they're quite far-out.

I like people who don't accept boundaries. Like Florence Nightingale. And Napoleon or Louis XIV, though I'm not sure how much I'd have liked to meet them. I admire people who aren't circumscribed by circumstance.

You could use many adjectives to describe Silicon Valley; I don't think 'normal' is one of them.

I was a little bit ahead of my time.

California serves as our nation's cutting edge on many fronts.

I'm a maverick.

Break the rules, stand apart, ignore your head, and follow your heart.

Break the rules. Be a fighter. Any dream is possible if you are brave enough to do it YOUR way.

I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person.

I don't like the word ['classic']. It makes you think we didn't do any work.

I don't like to say something's weird when it's innovative and fresh.

I always want to do something groundbreaking, something different. I think that's what it's always about. If you have the means to do it, why not?

I feel like I'm a trendsetter. I try to always stay on the edge of everything I do, whether it be music, fashion, film. I just like to stay abreast of what's going on. What's going on in the street and what's going on in the hood I put in my music and I feel like a lot of people follow that.

To the seeker after the new, or the sensational, to those who expect a sinister frisson from modern music, it is my melancholy duty to point out that all the bomb throwing and guillotining has already taken place.

Well, there's a lot to react against![in response to the accusation that she was a reactionary]