I fell in love with skateboarding because it was individual; there were no teams, there were no captains, there was nothing to perfect. No style that had to be measured. It was completely opposite of what I saw in so many sports. It was creative. And to this day, that's what I love, that's always kept me back to it because it's endless creation.
Interpretation
Skateboarding represents personal freedom and creativity, devoid of rigid structures.
In this quote, Rodney Mullen expresses his deep affection for skateboarding as a uniquely individualistic activity that allows for endless creativity and self-expression. Unlike traditional sports, which often involve teams, rigid structures, and standards to measure performance, skateboarding emphasizes personal style and innovation. This freedom and lack of constraints are what draw Mullen back to skateboarding continually.
In practice
During an interview about personal passions, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of individuality.
Skateboarding is as much, or more, an art of mode of expression than it is a sport. What skateboarding has given me is precisely that: a form of expression that drew me to it, and, in so doing, I was able to express and be who I wanted to be through it, in a sense.
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.
I don't agree with the sentiment 'write what you know.'... I think one should write what one doesn't know. The world is bigger and wider and more complex than our small subjective selves. One should prod, goad the imagination.
I refused to accept anything, doubted everything. So, doubting everything, I had to find something that had not existed before, something I had not thought of before. Any idea that came to me, the thing would be to turn it around and try to see it with another set of senses.
You have to be aware of what the audience's expectations are, and then you have to pervert them, basically, and hit them upside the head from a direction they weren't looking.
What I am trying to do when I use symbols is to awaken in your unconscious some reaction. I am very conscious of what I am using because symbols can be very dangerous. When we use normal language we can defend ourselves because our society is a linguistic society, a semantic society. But when you start to speak, not with words, but only with images, the people cannot defend themselves.
Designers take care of everything around us. Everything that is around us, this table, this chair, this lamp, this pen has been designed. All of these things, everything has been designed by somebody.
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