Quotes About Authenticity

You are not special. You don't get to not show up. You don't get to avoid difficult decisions. You get to climb into the muck with the rest of us. So, you want to be in charge, fine. Reach deep down, find a backbone, and handle your own shit. Otherwise, step down and make way for someone who would actually matter.

Why had I wasted all my time pretending to be someone I wasn't? I was tired, so very, very tired of standing on my own brakes. I felt...right. I felt free.

Yes, I want your bullshit.

It is my position that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.

It doesn't inspire young men and women struggling with their own sexuality to be confident in who they are if I'm not confident in who I am.

My advice for young people is to just be yourself. There's no pressure. Do what you want to do. And if you want to do something, then go after it and make it happen.

You must live life in its very elementary forms. The Mexicans have a very nice word for it: pura vida. It doesn't mean just purity of life, but the raw, stark-naked quality of life. And that's what makes young people more into a filmmaker than academia.

The young people I know judge leaders by their deeds and abhor hypocrisy. Inconsistency and point-scoring do not win respect. It's not easy to be engaged in political debate when it is reduced to performers trying to outdo each other. Actions from leaders must mirror the values they claim to espouse.

I'm incredibly inspired by the goofy edginess of teenagers and young people.

I think that my music is really empowering. I just want people to know - especially young people, but really everyone - that you don't have to be so caught up in what everyone else is thinking. You don't have to be the coolest, most popular person. You can just be you and be vulnerable.

Young people are craving something real, craving authenticity.

I wanted young people to know that I was just a typical child.

With young people, it's how brassy and flashy can you be. But you get a bit older, it's about how restrained can you be. You have to feel it all, think it all, but you don't have to play it - it's just gotta be there, and if the story's good and the script's good, people will see it.

I try to be measured and thoughtful about what I put out there because I know a lot of young people follow me on Twitter, and I take that seriously - which is why I don't exclusively tweet about cookies and 'Game of Thrones' and YA.

I think that was the biggest learning lesson for me. I realized I can't be anything for anyone else if I'm not the best me for me. Now I just hope to kind of be that message for young girls to focus on yourself first always. Young people, I should say.

Blues is a natural fact, is something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it you don't have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things.

I have mixed feelings about those sorts of things. When I see it done by interesting young people, I think it's very valid. But when established photographers, people in their forties, copy me and get a lot of money, well, I find that to be very stupid.

I do worry about young people in the business who have experienced a lot of success and are punted around doing those manic publicity trails, when you don't really know who you are yet.

I always try to be a trend setter. That's what I always tell young people when I'm giving them advice. To go with their heart and don't follow the trends.

'Skins' is about a group of teenagers in Bristol, and it's all about what they get up to and all the different things they do. I think it's a good show because it's come from a very real place, and there's a lot of young people involved in the writing.

When I talk to other young people, I try to be as straightforward as possible. I'm a kid. I love getting outdoors. You should get outside, too!

There's so much bullying with young people and them feeling like they can't come out, and they don't know what to do. And it's something that you have to work through. And, you know, for me, it was - I came out, and then I went back in for a minute. And then I came out, and I was like, 'You know what? This is who I am.'

I'm really excited about the revolution that is young people actually playing young people on Broadway.

The real thing young people should fear is missing out on those few, true, long-term friendships that make for a richer, happier life.