Quotes About Authenticity

I've never gotten up in front of a Muslim congregation and played the role of a religious leader, and I decline those invitations because that's not what I am.

We're a show-and-tell generation. People want to see behind the scenes. The more involved and invited they are, the closer affinity they have to your brand.

The first time I worked with Usher, I learned that I belonged in the room. You know the first time you get invited into a room you have never been in and you almost feel like you lied your way in? The second time, you don't feel like you lied your way in.

I only ever involve myself with brands I truly adore.

Believe it or not, friendships are difficult to write in fiction. They can easily come across as forced, particularly if they involve too much explication and too many overt gestures of affection.

It's important to tell the story you're telling in the right way, which might involve black people or people of whatever heritage or ethnicity - or it might not.

Everything I involve myself with is an extension of me, so I take everything super seriously, from the music to the shows. That's the only way to do it.

Everything you see on my channel was made by me - no one else was involved.

Sometimes being your most authentic self involves accepting others for who they are.

In Iranian cinema, all the lying takes place before making the film. In order to be able to make the film, you have to lie.

You won't hear me talk about my politics, you won't hear me talk about my vegetarianism, you won't hear me comment on the Iraq war. You'll only hear me talk about being gay and being an actor. I am just public on those two issues.

Sometimes, there's not an honest engagement of Ireland in Hollywood movies.

If you set your story in Rome, Ireland or Sheboygan, for that matter, go there. If you're broke, set it in the town where you live, or where you grew up.

I'm Irish and Cherokee Indian. I can't faint.

Ballet Hispanico is far from Irish, and, though it has strong dancers, its Spanishness has always left me unconvinced.

When I see someone who do the good or the bad, I let the world know because Iron Sheik always talk his mind.

It hard to be real heel, like Iron Sheik-class.

We said, as we were developing 'Iron Man 1,' and working on these films, that our characters need to be as interesting out of their costumes as they are inside their costumes, fighting and flying around.

I'm very proud that I was always able to be myself and didn't really care what people thought when I wanted bangs with my little Con-Air curling iron, and I wanted to wear glitter on my eyes and rings on every finger and charm necklaces that look like I was wearing baggage while I skated. But I do look back, and man, those '90s bangs.

I really try, at least consciously, not to be cynical or ironic.

The thing is, comedy's gone in a weird direction. People are really into ironic comedy and fakeness and cleverness.

Putting myself out there knowing I can be criticized - it's ironic, but to me, that's the most empowering thing.

It's ironic to watch a dress on a mannequin or a model on a catwalk who's not anything like the person that's going to buy it.

I think that having comedy where people talk the way they really talk, when you talk with your friends and whatever, it's really, it's important. Or else you're making stuff that's a little bit watered down and irrelevant.