David Choe quotes: the outspoken artist’s more shared quotes.
“You figure out what you value in this life, and then you go for it.”
“Comfort is the killer of creativity.”
“There is no balance, all or nothing.”
“Don’t copy people. Go for it. Put everything into it. And for that elusive success? Everything is timing, everything is luck, so jump back from failure, try again.”
“Go for it. Like a comedian who writes a joke and says, ‘Oh this might get me in trouble.’ That’s how you know you’re on the right path. ‘Oh my God, I shouldn’t be doing this!’ Then that means you definitely should be doing it.”
“Don’t be a pussy, challenge the summit.”
“The fantasy of ‘you will have this perfect setting to do your best work…’ the truth is the best stuff is created in moments of chaos.”
“If you want to be the best you have to learn from the best.”
“If you really are good at your job, everyone will always like the fast fresh inspired and spontaneous approach over what’s been contrived and labored over. Freestyle. What’s better: going to watch a fight or seeing a fight breakout at the IHOP parking lot? What’s funnier than someone sh*tting their pants while falling down an escalator?”
“When I was younger, shyer, and more insecure, I would rock that layered look to hide everything inside. I was so insecure about my skill. But I’m older now and more confident, my acne cleared up last year, I got some stink on my dick. I’m more secure with my tools.”
“I did everything I wanted to when I had nothing.”
“As a college-focused social network, Mark Zuckerberg’s company was everything I (who had dropped out of school and had no interest in anything like MySpace or Friendster) hated. I had been charging more and more for my work, but having just come out of prison, I was broke. So I asked Facebook for $60,000 to decorate the whole building. Instead I walked away with stock—and no guarantees Facebook would amount to anything. I didn’t care about Facebook. I’m like, this kid knows something, and I’m going to bet my money on him. I took stock instead of cash—and now I’m worth $200 million. I like to gamble, you know.”
“I was already happy with my state in life. I have a few million, adding hundreds of millions was crazy. I was pretty cool where I was at, so everyone wanted to know how my life changed. You end up losing the freedom, and then you’re like, wait, it’s the whole more money, more problems thing. What people don’t understand is that the things I value, like time… yeah, I pay for first class or private jets, anything that makes me get to where I need to go faster—that’s where I’ll spend my money. But if we were in L.A. right now, I live in the same house, I’ve never bought a new house, and I drive the same car. I bought all the crazy, fancy cars… I was already wealthy before Facebook—money was now no object, and I could and would do whatever I wanted.”
“I really didn’t change my life, except I had to make it more secure. But as far as doing things, if you look at the stuff I do, it doesn’t really cost anything. I mean, it costs money, but you don’t need a million. And now that I dabble in TV, even that doesn’t cost that much money. Like how cheap cameras are, everything I do—music, movies, TV shows—the way technology is available now, everything is cheap, and you can just do it yourself and upload it online. It doesn’t cost that much now, anyone can do it. Besides flying private or first class, and I don’t even do that all the time, anything to make my life easier, that’s where I like to spend my money. I guess it sounds dumb to say that it didn’t change my life that much, except for people asking me for money every single day.”
“One of the things that did happen was my gambling got crazier. ‘Cause for me, money is something that aids me in getting things done that I want to do. I don’t want to be rich just to be rich, I don’t want to be famous just to be famous. Everything has a purpose. I have an addictive personality, so the gambling got way worse. Before I’d be like, ‘I won a quarter million or half a million in Vegas.’ That would be great, but now I had to play millions. I went to rehab for gambling after my last crazy gambling spree in Vegas.”
“I’m doing less painting and more writing, and that’s not left up to interpretation. I’m weird, and I look at everything like it’s art, so that’s the part that gets a little bit confusing to some people.”
“This enormous fear of forgetting all the ideas that are balancing on the tip of my mind, either falling onto the page or onto the other side—which is oblivion never to be remembered—is too great to ever stop or slow down the flow. Stupid things happen of course, but sometimes it can get real interesting, and when people start spending hours analyzing stuff that I wrote in 30 seconds, sometimes they can get in too deep, but what usually happens is I end up looking a lot more thoughtful or smart than I really am.”
“Everything I’ve ever done in my life has made money, from selling vitamins, to pimping, to gambling, to art. Every single thing I’ve done has made so much money. The way things slow down is with the contract. I don’t give a sh*t. And they’re like, ‘Oh, well you’re rich now.’ I’ve done that always, I just want to get sh*t done, I don’t want to get slowed down, so I like convenience.”
“I liked putting my book out with Chronicle, because they took care of everything. I like that sh*t, like I’m truly the talent, and I just do sh*t, and someone else does all the shipping and legal. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m supposedly a liability by just how I live my life and how I do my sh*t. I’m very transparent—almost by default I have to become an entrepreneur. It’s like my book, I haven’t even put the full regular edition out, just the special edition, and it sold out in like an hour.”
“This is gonna sound crazy, but I was cleaning my room, and I found $100,000 that I forgot I had. I used to go to Vegas with pillowcases full of millions of dollars, so it was like, ‘Oh sh*t, I forgot I had that.'”
“I used to be angry. So did I just lose it now? Because it’s been the number one motivating force for me to get everything done. Just rage—anger. But now it’s like, life isn’t perfect and sh*t happens, and you’re like, ‘Alright, f*ck it.’ If I was younger, and I came home, and my evil step mom threw away my stuff, I would kill her. I would just be overcome by rage. I would strangle my mom in front of some monks. But now it’s like, if I came home, and my house was on fire, I’d be like, ‘That sucks.'”
“My honesty is real, my talent is raw, and the anger I once possessed has faded away, allowing me to move forward onto the step phase of my rapidly expanding career with my eyes wide open.”
“Just because you, your mom, and your best friend think it’s the best doesn’t mean anything to anyone but yourself. Be honest with yourself, know who and what you are, don’t deny it, accept it and move on from there, or get left behind.”
“Everything that happened in my life affects my art.”
“I don’t think I’ve become more fearful as I’ve gotten older. I keep thinking that, but I don’t think so. I mean, what’s there to be scared of? I have a better attitude I think. I created this, I answer to no one, I do whatever I want, I have no commitments to anything. So it’s like, ‘What if you bomb on stage, what if no one laughs?’ All right, it’s like, keep moving. I just keep doing stuff, and having the best time, and trying my best at everything I do, and if it doesn’t work out, then on to the next.”
“On achieving my goals: I don’t understand moderation. I’m not the nice guy. I am the asshole.”
“By nature, I’m a very self-destructive person, but all that happens is that I just get more successful every time I do it. Someday I’ll come crashing down, so that’s why I try to keep a good attitude about it all.”
“I’ve spoiled myself from as long as I can remember. I take what I want, and I get what I want. For as long as I can remember, one of my greatest talents is that of a crook. The money, the toys, the girl, I always got it, and I never settled for second best. It’s what I project for myself and then make it happen. Hitting rock bottom. Once you’ve felt like you’ve seen the worst, what can anyone do to scare you, or persuade you to do or say something that isn’t anything else but the truth?”
“Everyone in your life, from the media to parents and teachers, are lying to you almost all the time, but once in a while you get to look past the curtain and it opens your eyes. And I know how well I respond to the truth. I appreciate it and I think it’s honorable. Of course ignorance can also be bliss, but I know how much I appreciate the truth, so I like to deliver it: in my work, in my relationships, in my life, no matter how painful or embarrassing. When you send that kind of message people will respond. I’m spoiled and I’ve seen my worst, I’m not scared of anything. Sometimes I come across arrogant and like an asshole, but really you can’t f*ck with this. You can’t stop it. I don’t think I could even stop it if I tried, there seems to be some bigger driving force behind all of this.”
“I know some of the richest and most powerful men in the world, and they’re jealous of me. Why? You have more money than me, you have more fame, you have more power, you have all these things. And it’s because they still have to answer to someone. They have shareholders.”
“I do literally anything I want with no consequences to anyone except for myself, which I don’t give a sh*t about. There’s nothing anyone can do to me that I haven’t done to myself a million times over.”
“Get the f*ck over it already. F*ck you and your petty bullsh*t and whatever you’re going through. Life is not that bad.”
“I have no personal life, it’s all on view for the world to see. It’s f*cked up every chance I’ve ever had at having a normal stable life, we all have to choose our destiny. We all choose our fate. It takes incredible sacrifice, for those who want to keep balancing on the fence and don’t want to pick a side, keep balancing forever and see how that feels.”
“You can’t buy your privacy back. Because I was already doing okay, and to have this abstract amount of money now, I cannot buy my privacy back.”
“My goal is to retire early, illustrate the entire bible, and paint the entire Wall of China.”
“Life is f*cking great, because you never know what’s going to happen.”
Related: Joe Rogan net worth.
