The Boulevardier

“I can’t know anybody else as well as I know myself.  It’s the artist’s job to be narcissistic, constantly analyzing and paying attention to yourself to see how things affect you.  One think I want to bring back to punk was the knowledge that you invent yourself.  That’s why I changed my name, why I did all the clothing style things, haircut, everything.  So naturally, if you invent yourself, you love yourself.  The idea of inventing yourself is creating the most ideal image that you could imagine… You can be your own hero, and once everybody is their own hero, then everybody’s gonna be able to communicate with each other on a real basis rather than a hand-me-down set of societal standards.” Richard Hell 1978