Guillermo Cabrera Infante Quotes

I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be put as only a guitar player, or either only as a songwriter, or only as a tap dancer. I like to move around.

Some of us are born rebellious. Like Jean Genet or Arthur Rimbaud, I roam these mean streets like a villain, a vagabond, an outcast, scavenging for the scraps that may perchance plummet off humanity's dirty plates, though often sometimes taking a cab to a restaurant is more convenient.

The best musicians or sound-artists are people who never considered themselves to be artists or musicians.

James Franco has turned his life into a real art project. In my opinion, that's the way to live.

I kept hearing all these rules: 'You can't say that in country music.' 'You can't use that kind of beat.' I became so frustrated. It may have slingshotted me, in a rebellious way, toward doing something different.

I don't think I'm influencing younger artists - they're not trying to be me. But I don't say that in bitterness. I say that with realism.

It isn't till now, in the American Century, as we have recklessly dubbed it, that tribal pressures toward conformity have been brought to bear so ruthlessly upon men and women seeking to work creatively.

I know that whatever I put out, whether people think it's pop or noise or whatever, it's always going to be some kind of a freak or mutation. It's not going to be anything pure that a lot of people will relate to. And that's fine.

I think that's part of the battle of defining yourself as an artist. You're constantly fighting the pressure from outside to be pigeonholed and deliver more of what people already liked.

I don't want to create any particular kind of image; I just want to do different types of films.

I'm sort of stuck in adolescence in many ways, like most artists, and march to my own beat.

I like the challenge of writing music without being the coolest guy or band in the room.

I make all types of music. People wanna put me in a little box, and they get mad when I don't stay in there.

I did not want to do things the way they are usually done in Hindi cinema.

Hollywood seduces a person who's used to making theater, art, and having success on their own terms and then tries to squish them into a box and, eventually, throws the box out.

I wasn't like the rest of the kids. I was an artist. Living in a black society, when you're raised around a bunch of boys who plays sports and chase girls, there's this perception of masculinity that's super hard to fit into. I wasn't the stereotype of that like a lot of my peers were.

What I've noticed about Hollywood is, if you go out there shouting about who you are, they will love you for it. But if you go out not knowing what it is that you're representing, and you are just a canvas, they will make you into the thing they need you to be.

I'm a creative person, and I'm gonna be creative, so whoever's upset because of that, that's too bad.

I think people sometimes have a hard time placing me because I don't fit into a box. When they ask what I do at a cocktail party, I either say I'm a Renaissance woman or I'm a high-level madam. Lately I've been more comfortable saying I'm an artist, because that can cover a lot of different things.

Some artists say 'Don't categorize me.' I'm saying 'You can't categorize me.'

The first five albums I did, I tried a little bit of everything. I was trying not to conform at all.

I think couldn't not make a song called 'Wild Boy' and not be a wild boy.

I am not a genre-based artist.

I think, my entire life, I was a bit different. And I didn't think I was different; I just kinda always stuck out.

The idea of going off to an office every day and 'putting on my art hat' doesn't appeal.