Quotes About Authenticity

The writing arrives when it wants to. There is nothing you can do about it. You can't squeeze more writing out of the living than is there. Any attempt to do so creates a panic in the soul, diffuses and jars the line.

Writing poems is not difficult, living them is.

as the fools are fooled again you wonder where the real ones are if there are real ones.

Maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become so obvious yourself.

it seemed less real, and that was what was needed.

Ho ricevuto un sacco di lettere di persone che dicono che i miei libri gli hanno salvato il culo. Ma io non li ho scritti per quello, li ho scritti per salvare il mio, di culo.

You understand, we just don't fuck with truth.

I don't like the clean-shaven boy with the necktie and the good job. I like desperate men, men with broken teeth and broken minds and broken ways. They interest me. They are full of surprises and explosions.

if a man didn't truly believe or understand what he was espousing, somehow he could do a more convincing job

no hay gente feliz? —hay mucha gente que finge ser feliz. —¿por qué? —porque están avergonzados y asustados y no tienen el valor de admitirlo. —¿tú estás asustado? —yo sólo tengo el valor de admitirlo contigo... estoy tan asustado y tengo tanto miedo, mamá, que podría morirme en este mismo instante.

Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?

It occurred to me that everybody suffered continually, including those who pretended they didn't.

Olemassaoloni on ollut kummallista ja alkukantaista, paljolti hirvittävää, totaalista juopumusta, mutta se oli minun tapani puskea tämän paskan läpi.

Stop insisting on clearing your head—clear your fucking heart instead.

He that speaks seldom and opportunely, being as good as his word, is the only man they love," Wood explained. Character

No need to act all hoity-toity. Aloofness is a bore. We're all lonely in one way or another.

So often people look at me and see something else. I wish I could take the time to present everyone in the world with the real me and explain myself, because I do want people to like me. Too often people look at you and see their own reflection staring back.

Dear God, please don't grant me one of those magic mirrors. The ones that make a person see only what they want to believe about themselves--not as others actually see them. I'd rather be aware of myself, including the flaws, and keep it real. Amen.

it's nearly impossible to convey our deepest passions yet damned easy to share what's dullest and worst about ourselves.

If you're not who you want to be, at least act like who you want it be. - Bud

You'll find that as you grow old, you stop bothering to hide the self you've been all along.

the you you are with others is not you. To be lonesome is to be who you most fully are.

He is so full of manure, that man, we could lay him in the dirt and grow another one just like him. Ruby about her dad in Cold Mountain

Marrying a woman for her beauty makes no more sense than eating a bird for its singing. But it's a common mistake nonetheless.