When I arrived, at first a lot of people were like, ‚This kid is different.‘

What did I owe the rest of the world? Nothing.

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.

I work hard to be able to set myself apart from everything else that’s going on in the trap genre.

I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them – they are individual and stylish.

Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

As a body everyone is single, as a soul never.

We are all special cases.

Every man should know, if you’re comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always worries about what the girls think, what the guys think. If you like it, do it.

I think everyone’s inherently snobbish. Things that are very popular are not taken seriously, because the snobbish side of one says, ‚Well, if everyone likes it it can’t be that good.‘ Whereas if only I and a couple of other people like it, then it must be really something special.

Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.

SEALs are human beings. We may all have the same haircuts, but we aren’t robots. Some SEALs are great people. Some are not great people. Some have done unspeakably terrible things. You’re dealing with different people, different dreams, different desires.

People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he’s ever read, and another person will say it’s absolutely idiotic. I mean, there’s no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.

When we started, a lot of bands sounded really different from one another.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

When people meet me, they say that I’m really kind – contrary to a lot of my music.

Sometimes, people can be extraordinarily judgmental and closed-minded to anyone different or special, which is why it’s so hard for young people in this day and age to be comfortable enough in their own skin to not listen to the people picking on them.

As the father of eight children, I’m quite convinced that each individual arrives here with their own unique personality. We are intended here from an invisible held of infinite potentiality. That which has no form, has no boundaries – it’s the I that’s in the ever-changing body.

I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

There are definitely elements of experience and stuff that someone who’s my age wouldn’t have. But there are also things that I can do that other people wouldn’t necessarily be able to.

The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

I’ve never been one to sit back and go, ‚I’d better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don’t want to lose them.‘

I think I do myself a disservice by comparing myself to Steve Jobs and Walt Disney and human beings that we’ve seen before. It should be more like Willy Wonka… and welcome to my chocolate factory.

All I can do is be me, whoever that is.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

You lose your individuality a huge amount when you have no money, and I certainly had that experience.

Maybe every city has a unique sensibility, but we don’t have names for what they are or haven’t identified them all. We can’t pinpoint exactly what makes each city’s people unique yet.

When you’re just like everybody else, you’ve nothing to offer other than your conformity.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

Be willing to use yourself to get out there and put the company on the market. If you have to make a fool of yourself, make a fool of yourself, but make sure that you end up on the front pages, not the back pages. In time, it’s possible that your company will stand out from the crowd, and you’ll be successful.

Let’s embrace being not normal!

I am odd-looking. I sometimes think I look like a funny Muppet.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I’ve had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm’s way until they could be their own guides.

Romantic art deals with the exception and with the individual. Good people, belonging as they do to the normal, and so, commonplace type, are artistically uninteresting.

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.

I don’t know if I’ve ever cared much what others think.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

A person’s a person, no matter how small.

I don’t have a type. I don’t have a specific kind of human being. It’s just kind of an X-factor of sorts. Everybody I’ve ever dated has been a case-by-case situation.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

I didn’t want to just be another girl singer. I wanted there to be something that set me apart.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

It is only a man’s own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else’s meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip.

At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.

Freedom is relative.