Bootsy Collins Quotes

Just trying to be different - when I hear something - I don't like to go trampling on other people's sounds.

I'm certainly not who people think I am. I always do whatever I want to do, and my films are personal to me.

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 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.

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

Sometimes, there's a preconceived notion of how a scene or how a work should be delivered. And I see young performers sometimes try and deliver that, and it's not really true to their voice or who they are.

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.

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.

It's nice to sometimes get things out of life, rather than stealing from other artists. I'm trying to steal from the real people.

If you're trying to please everyone, then you're not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don't think, in the long run.

Labels don't mean anything to me. I'm trying to play as passionately as I'm able to. If they want to call that cool, that's fine. Just spell the name right, is the formula.

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

I think the most important thing for an artist is to stay true to who you are. I want to stay as authentic as possible, as that's how we're going with our team.

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 can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible.

In my short career, I tend not to repeat myself. I have no interest in redoing something. Sometimes that makes people angry, and maybe it's not the best thing for me commercially. But it's the best thing for me artistically, and it's the best thing for my heart.

For me, I'm not trying to be the flavor for everybody. But I'm just proud when people I respect or people that I want to be my fans are my fans.

All my life, I wanted to sound like myself. I never wanted to sound like anybody else.

It's just I do things differently and I want people to appreciate music for what it is, and not because of a story.

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.

You can filter certain stuff - it depends what artist you are - but you're never going to be true to yourself if you're worried about what other people think.

I'm just trying to be myself - make music how I make music.

I'm someone who speaks my mind, so it was important to me that my publisher value originality and creative expression.

You can't try and make something you think someone else will like. You can only make what you like. How can you make a song that Yo-Landi Visser likes? You don't know me. You'll never understand me.