I didn’t get my degree at NYU I got it later, they gave me an honourary one.

Jarmusch’s remark distinguishes between formal academic credentialing and the more circuitous, practice-based education many artists experience. By stressing that he did not complete a degree at NYU but later received an honorary one, he implicitly downplays the idea that institutional validation is the primary route to artistic legitimacy. The line also carries a dry, self-effacing humor: the “degree” arrives not as proof of having followed the prescribed path, but as retrospective recognition of work done outside (or beyond) the classroom. In a broader sense, it comments on how cultural institutions often confer status after the fact, once an artist’s achievements are already established.