Quotes About Authenticity

I find it a very, very powerful thing to be yourself and not to try and be something else and to use that as your biggest shield and your biggest attack in the world - to just be you.

That's all true, but there was something else going on for me as a kid, something about my gender identity that I haven't figured out yet. And that's one of the things I'm hoping to dissect and investigate in this memoir project.

I am far from perfect, but I have something else. I heard that people in the industry are longing for more personality and diversity. Perhaps I am more a 'character' than a model.

I don't want to be 45 competing with 20-year-olds, running to go get Botox. I want to be an expressive actor hired for the age that I am, portraying women who are my age: 40. I'm just hoping I can find some of those roles to play. Otherwise, I have to find something else.

You have to live in order to have something to write about - you get caught up in moviemaking and celebrities and money, and it's very intoxicating, but it doesn't give you what you need as a writer. You have to do something else for that.

Some people use stand-up to get something else in their careers, but it's truly the art form of stand-up I love.

As readers, we sense when the game is being played for real and when something else is afoot: pride, showmanship, the pursuit of power, self-aggrandizement, revenge, making money. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, but I dislike closing a book with the sense that I've been had.

All my films are about kind of being seen to be one thing when you're actually something else, and the power of the female spirit to make things work your way on your terms. Which is what I do.

Since the beginning, I have always tried to just be me. There have been moments in my career as a YouTuber where I've recognized that I'm trying to emulate something else, or I'm being heavily influenced by a YouTuber or something like that, and I realize that's not what I want to be putting out.

To me, no matter who you're casting for what role, if something's authentic, usually you can mine something good there.

I feel like nowadays it's almost become a corny thing to say that you want to be a role model or do something good for the world, but the artists I've looked up to - like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Prince - were about something.

You need to enjoy what you're doing in order to do something good. You can't force it.

You have to think of a new way to make something new. And the biggest sin - you can never try too hard. You can never look like you're just trying to shock people, 'cause that's simple. But making people laugh is the hard part.

Sometimes you feel awkward being what you're best at, you feel like you have to be something new.

The hardest challenge is doing something more traditional. When you do something new, it's easier because it's its own thing. But the traditional ones, you have to do them right.

If you're doing black music, you should have a core understanding of where that comes from, and the fundamentals - so you're not some bozo thinking you're doing something new.

I'm like old shoes. I've never been hip. I think the reason I'm still here is that I was never enough in fashion that I had to be replaced by something new.

I'd rather play here in this small bar and just do a good show. Because it's fun and there's no expectations, it's encouragement to be different, do something new.

I try to go with the flow, and I feel pretty comfortable with who I am. I feel courageous enough to go outside myself and try something new, like everything in life.

I think people are very interested when a creator is really trying to do something new and do it with integrity and honesty, when it gives them something they can connect with and has an emotional core.

I hope to show people everywhere that you can be unapologetically you and still succeed. I also hope that by using more diverse models, brands can see that there is power in diversity, and not shy away from doing something new for fear of failure. The effects are bigger than just the fashion industry.

We were one of the first to say, 'Let's make a really nice shirt for skaters and let's make it really well.' We don't dumb down for somebody young; we are always trying to do something new.

There's something special about 'Looking.'

Anyone who says it's so easy to write a country hit and that it's just a formula - well, try it sometime. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it.