Helmut Newton Quotes

I'm a sworn enemy of convention. I despise the conventional in anything, even the arts.

I'm a sworn enemy of convention. I despite the conventional in anything, even the arts. I paint canvasses on the floor and drove one art teacher out of his mind. But that's just the way I paint best.

All art is based on non-conformity.

I am very attracted by bad taste-it is a lot more exciting than that supposed good taste which is nothing more than a standardized way of looking at things.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

The American people ... have a stake in con-conformity, for they know that the American genius is non-conformist.

When you think 'Peaky Blinders,' when it first began it got mixed reviews and people didn't know what to do with it, and it was like: 'Why is there modern music on this?' So I think whenever you do something different you're going to get that response.

The creative members of an orthodoxy, any orthodoxy, ultimately outgrow their disciplines.

Learn all the rules... then break them.

You know that scenario where roses are red, leaves are green, I love arguing that. ‘Why should they be?’. I hate rules and formulas. That’s so boring. It’s the opposite of creativity. Rules are ridiculous things that are meant to be broken.

Avant-garde means never having to say you're sorry.

I never imagined myself doing a one-man show. If I'm going to do one, I'd rather do one that breaks all the rules.

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

Not to be boxed in, to be able to transcend boundaries: for an artist, it's essential.

You have to be a crazy guy and a little eccentric to be very successful.

The Pre-Raphaelites, while very bothered by what the establishment thought of them, also utterly rebelled against it. In everything - social, sexual, emotional - they were out on a limb, pushing the boundaries.

Every band I've worked with also wants to be countercultural in the sense that they want to feel that they've gone somewhere that nobody else has been.

I'm always looking at how I can be atypical.

What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate.

To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.

I was always a rebel in the sense that I always wanted to go my own road and do something that nobody else has done.

When I was a kid, the avant-garde to me was boring because it was just the flip side of being really successful.

It doesn't really matter to me what the rest of country is doing. I'm not caught up in trying to make a record that sounds like everybody else. That, to me, is a record label's absolute biggest downfall.

I like people who push the envelope.

I do strive to find projects that are trying to carve out some new space. I enjoy projects that leap away from the crowd a little bit.