Wayne Shorter Quotes

To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.

They say stay in the lines, but there's always something better on the other side.

I think that what I'm attracted to is people who are wild. But the self-destructive side comes out of the wild side. The wildness is very different from me. That's why I think I like it.

There are two rules I've always tried to live by: turn left, if you're supposed to turn right; go through any door that you're not supposed to enter. It's the only way to fight your way through to any kind of authentic feeling in a world beset by fakery.

Take a walk on the wild side.

Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks.

If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.

You gotta stick your neck out and put out a record that isn't safe... that's the Green Day way!

How I long to fall just a little bit, to dance out of the lines and stray from the light.

I always like to do something different, something unusual, stray off the path a bit.

I like arriving somewhere and taking a left when someone tells you to go right. When all the tourist signs are pointing one way, it's exciting to go the other.

I've always had a desire to live on the outside. That's where I'm most comfortable.

I have been interested in pirates since I was about 8 years old. The idea of people deciding, sometimes at a moment's notice, to throw over the rules and restrictions of society - it was just irresistible.

It was strange to go off the path that everyone takes and not finish college, but it's been a great adventure.

My definition of freedom is still ruled by the reluctance to live a conventional life, from Emilio Salgari's pirates.

You try a lot of things and you don't know what the hell you're doing. If you're actually inventing something you shouldn't know what you're doing.

I just wanted to make something in the world and worry about the rest of it later and not get too caught up in rules.

Taking risks, breaking the rules, and being a maverick have always been important but today they are more crucial than ever.

Beaten paths are for beaten men.

[...] My wild words slip into fusion and risk losing the solid ground. So stranger, get wilder still. Probe the highlands.

The furthest out is the only place to be.

Successful people are the ones who are breaking the rules.

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea 'cruising' it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

Really interesting things come because you don't know what the rules are, what you can and can't do.