Kanye West discusses technology and culture at the Cannes Lions festival, says ridiculous things

Sharing a panel discussion with marketing CEO Steve Stoute and entrepreneur Ben Horowitz, West discussed a variety of topics including consumerism, celebrity, mass culture, his recent wedding and how he doesn’t like Instagram.

Check out the (rather outlandish) highlights below, along with a video clip:

“I don’t want to say these really big over-the-top statements that end up getting quoted.”

“Steve Jobs, as everyone knows, was my biggest influence. Just seeing the way he fought to make things easier for people. After he passed, I made it my life’s mission to do what he did inside of that company.”

“I have to work with the No. 1. I can’t work with anyone but Jay Z, because he’s No. 1. I can’t be with any girl but Kim, because that’s the girl whose pictures I look at the most and get turned on by.”

“I spent like four days on my wedding photo. This is pissing my girl off during the honeymoon. Annie Leibovitz pulled out right before the wedding—maybe she was scared about the idea of celebrity. … But I still wanted my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz.”

“Now, can you imagine telling someone who just wants to Instagram a photo, the No. 1 person on Instagram, that we need to work on the color of the flowered wall? But the fact that the No. 1 most liked photo has this certain aesthetic on it was a win for what the mission is—of raising the palette.”

“The world as a whole is fucking ugly. The Internet as a whole is fucking ugly, too. But I’m not in the construction business. I said to Kevin [Systrom], why don’t you let us redo Instagram? Now, you know, Instagram is nice. It’s nice looking. I’m not knocking it. But just in general, everyone spends all of their time looking at their screens or their phones. And just as a simple task, we could clean that up.”

“I dream to help raise the palette and raise the taste level of a generation and also be involved with the production and distribution and advertising of that thing everyone’s begging for.”

“People are less about the brand and more about self-confidence and how the brands can assist them, similar to what Steve was doing with tech. This is my goal in lifestyle, in everyday life—to change the idea of what luxury is. Because time is the only luxury. It’s not all these brands that we just drove by that are somehow selling our esteem back to us through association.”

“When people think celebrity, which is the highest form of communication—we’re like walking networks or TV shows or brands in ourselves—you don’t think good taste. And I believe that bad taste is vulgar. It’s like cursing. I think the world can be saved through design. Because what is the most distasteful thing someone can do? Kill someone. So, good taste is the opposite of that.”

“We have enough people with the sensibilities and connections to completely make that a more beautiful place. That is our future. People ask, Where’s our future? Where’s our flying cars? That is the world that’s floating above us right now. And we can make that beautiful with the people in Cannes right now.”