Kanye West (don't forget the "Dr") spoke to fashion students at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College's Gold Thimble Fashion Show last night. It was only seven and a half minutes, so not quite Oxford length, but he still offered the crowd some choice wisdom cutlets. Here are the standouts:
1. "I empathize with anyone in this era who's ever loved fashion...Even for me as a successful musician, in order to make the transition, it was really all but impossible. People always try to box you in for what they know you best for. The most successful artists are as close to as they were when they five years old, or four years old, or three years old, or when my daughter wakes up and decides to change her career seven times a day."
2. "Use your youth, use this time you have right to learn as much as possible, to educate yourself, to hone your craft."
3. "As a son of two educators, I felt like it was more of my responsibility to enforce whenever I had the opportunity and speak up on what was actually right in my eyes. And by default, I've got a lot of haters since then. But it was simply that artist's three year old truth that I wanted to get across."
4. "It's a tough world out there. You've gotta prepare yourself for politics, bad bosses, hating employees and usually when you're the absolute best, you get hated on the most. But never stop fighting, no matter what anyone says, no matter how they try to compromise your vision. If it's in your gut, if it's in your soul, there's no worldly possessions that should come between you and your expression."
5. "Death is promised. So what do you do with your life? How do you make the most of it? How do you make your voice the loudest?"
