On the anniversary of his death, Another Man presents ten of the Thin White Duke’s best quotes
- TextAilidh Maclean
Born David Jones, the man we know as David Bowie flexed a plethora of personas across his five decade-long career – each informing the music he made at the time and the creative potency of his accompanying artistic projects. From Ziggy Stardust, his interstellar individualist of a carefully concocted rock star and Aladdin Sane (a play on “a lad, insane”), to the Thin White Duke and laterly, the cryptic guise of Lazarus; he pushed the very boundaries of expression until the very end.
Encouraging the exploration of uniqueness in every which way, Bowie and his work served as a glam-rock glimmer of hope for a platoon of fans who felt too weird for this world. For the first time, a prominent figure of popular culture was spearheading acceptance of queer communities and encouraging dialogue around what was until then, a largely closeted lifestyle. Two years to the day since the passing that prompted a worldwide wave of sadness, we present the top ten quotes that explore the extraterrestrial oeuvre of the inimitable outsider.
1. “I’m an instant star – just add water and stir.”
2. “I’ve always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. I felt very puny as a human. I thought, ‘Fuck that. I want to be a superhuman.’”
3. “Don’t you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything.”
4. “I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture I was living in.”
5. “I reinvented my image so many times that I’m in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.”
6. “Make the best of every moment. We’re not evolving. We’re not going anywhere.”
7. “I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.”
8. “I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.”
9. “I’m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I’m living on.”
10. “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.”
The Man Who Fell To Earth, published by Taschen is out now.
