Quotes About Authenticity

People don't want their actors acting like musicians.

For most artists, you take what you have and who you are, and then you expand on it to make it more entertaining. Everyone knows actors aren't the same people that they play in movies, but people somehow expect musicians to be a certain way all the time!

I didn't want 'Ramy' to be a commercial, like 'Hey, Muslims are good!' We're underrepresented, so the instinct when we get an opportunity like this is to show people that we're good, that we have the same shared values. What's more important to me is showing that we have the same flaws.

I don't want to protect my characters. I don't do it with Muslims, either. My job is not to make us look perfect. My job is to make us look messy.

I didn't want to wear a checked shirt and grow a mustache - that's what you had to do, and everyone did.

I had hair down to my shoulders, a beard and mustache. I was crude and rude.

Somebody's trying to sell you a Mercedes and he pulls up in a Civic with mustard stains on his shirt, dipping a pretzel in some cheese? Nobody wants to hear what you say unless you look like somebody.

I would never shortchange an audience. I believe in doing every single performance with as much integrity and concentration and feeling as I can muster.

You can be funny and say what you mean; these ideas are not mutually exclusive. Some of the best jokes came from people who meant it. See: Pryor, Bruce, Carlin, etc.

The idea that feeling confident and feeling misunderstood are mutually exclusive really bugs me. So a lot of what 'Rookie' is about is just showing that you can be both, and you can like whatever you want.

In high school, I felt pressure to fit in with groups and with people who didn't actually want to be my friend. That's something I learned moving forward into adulthood: to keep the people around me people who love me for exactly who I am.

I don't want to live in a bubble, in my craft or in the world... I can't, I would be cheating myself out of my generation and the world we live in.

Coming out as a Barbra Streisand fan was way more embarrassing than coming out as a lesbian. To be an artist of my generation willing to be unhip - artists were supposed to be like cowboys.

My generation has a hard time being genuine and enthusiastic. There's a lot of irony in our culture.

The first 10 years of my journey, I was still figuring out who I was, and then I had to redo it all over again when I became bigger. So instead of saying, 'I'm gay and this is me,' I started telling the story through my music.

I just wanted to keep consistent and keep true to America and not seem contrived. I didn't want to seem contrived at all with any song choice that might be a detriment to my journey on 'The Voice.'

I think the three words that describe my journey are gratitude, original and always being focused.

I only believe in what I see and hear with my own eyes and ears.

I'm in my own little lane, doing just me. I don't have to fit in.

I have my own thing going on; I don't want to imitate anyone else.

I'm in my own little world. I don't get invited into galas; I don't meet other people that I don't find interesting. I hang with my friends all the time, and we do exactly what we like.

I'd rather be a poor singer/songwriter doing what I love than get rich from selling my soul.

I want to put my soul into the music and still be who I am when it comes to an actual conversation.

I love creating things that come from my gut and my soul.