Quotes About Authenticity

I'm not worried about wrinkles on my cheeks, or going grey. I'm not trying to be 20.

If you don't like your wrinkles and you think Botox or surgery is going to fix it, do it and shut up. But don't keep talking about it.

Growing up, I was a target. Speaking the right way, standing the right way, holding your wrist the right way. Every day was a test, and there were a thousand ways to fail, a thousand ways to betray yourself, to not live up to someone else's standards of what was accepted, of what was normal.

When I came out publicly, some photo editors had a field day searching for pictures of me with a limp wrist or some other stereotypical gay signifier - as though, after decades in the public eye, they'd suddenly come across a trove of shots where I looked like a Cher impersonator.

When I was younger, out in public, I never wanted to pop my hip and definitely made sure that my wrist was nice and firm. All these silly, prohibitive things.

Public behavior is merely private character writ large.

Don't let your mouth write a check that your tail can't cash.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool - and I'm not any of those - to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

I play a little guitar, write a few tunes, make a few movies, but none of that's really me. The real me is something else.

I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs.

I write what I see; I paint what I am.

I just write what I think is funny. I don't care who watches it.

I love pop music, but at the same time, I'm seeking to write whatever I'm organically inclined to.

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.

My greatest achievement is being able to write records that are real snapshots of what's going on in my life. I won't repeat myself for the sake of commerce, or to please other people.

For a male artist, people instantly assume they write their own music, but for women, they assume it's all manufactured.

I certainly wanted to write a book that was honest about New Orleans without explaining it to death, so much so that the first draft contained references absolutely incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't lived here for several years.

Don't try to guess what it is people want and give it to them. Don't ask for a show of hands. Try your best to write what you like, what you think your friends would like and what you think your father would like and then cross your fingers... The most valuable thing you have is your own voice.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

I must never write when I do not want to write.

I have suffered most of the things I write about - or my friends have.

You can write a song about being in love with someone, but you don't have to be in love with anyone.

Whenever I get stuck on something, I'm like, 'What would I do if I wasn't afraid? What would I write if I wasn't afraid? What would I say in this situation if I wasn't afraid?'

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.