Quotes About Authenticity

Imagine that our hardships, our hurdles, our demons, our pain were spelled out for everyone around us to see. Imagine that each of us donned a sandwich board that itemized them.

A friend is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.

A man who calls bullshit fertilizer.

Trust, but verify.

Look, architecture has a lot of places to hide behind, a lot of excuses. 'The client made me do this.' 'The city made me do this.' 'Oh, the budget.' I don't believe that anymore.

I want to die, stripped, by myself, of all fantasies. That's the goal. I want to feel what is real, at the end, and only what is real. Grip fiercely with my eyes all that is around me--the people of my intimate life, the objects in the room, without the evasions of fantasies.

Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change.

Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.

A friend should always be quite clear what your attitude was on any subject, there should be no prevarication, and if people offended you or merited your disapproval, you should be utterly frank with them.

Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humor?

Too many poets act like a middle-aged mother trying to get her kids to eat too much cooked meat, and potatoes with drippings (tears). I don't give a damn whether they eat or not. Forced feeding leads to excessive thinness (effete). Nobody should experience anything they don't need to, if they don't need poetry bully for them. I like the movies too. And after all, only Whitman and Crane and Williams, of the American poets, are better than the movies.

How we treat others is the only proof of truth we have.

I don't view you as a market segment. I view you as my partner, an individual reader, a friend as complex and maybe even as conflicted, as I am. Why should either of us "fit" anywhere?

Sanity, remember, does not mean living in the same world as everyone else; it means living in the real world.

Don't hide your scars. They make you who you are

Sometimes I think we keep secrets for the wrong reasons. If we could instead find that right person to talk to we might find that talking about an embarrassing story or admitting our frailty might lead to a more authentic relationship with others or ourselves.

Stop lying. There isn't enough time left.

I don't feel like I have to conform when I'm with you.

We should all realize that we can only talk about the bad forgeries, the ones that have been detected; the good ones are still hanging on the walls

Art is the business of selling fetishes, sacred relics once touched by genius: what the forger offers the gullible buyer is not art, it is "authenticity

If you don't tell your story, somebody else will.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

When speaking, be sincere, be brief, and be seated.

Politically I am absolutely honest, which is to say, as honest as possible; which is to say, honest more or less; which is to say, far more honest than the general.