Quotes About Authenticity

The difference between being in the closet and out of the closet as a gay man is such a huge shift. I feel so connected still to that 22-year-old, but the idea that I was not open with that part of my life - which I am now so open about - is sort of surreal.

'Birdman' came from a very beautiful side of me, from a part of honesty and surrender about things.

I love playing at Surrender because they let me be free and be myself... it's family, you know?

Meryl Streep doesn't care how she looks. She just surrenders to the truth of the character. Not everybody has the ability to do that. They look good and they can pretend to be that person, it's not the same as being that person. And there are not many actors who will surrender to that.

I make sure I always surround myself with good, down to earth, fun, real people, who always keep me grounded.

Tal vez exista, a pesar de todo, una solución autentica, la única solución. Incluso en los periodos de catástrofes, incluso en los períodos de las religiones políticas, hay una actividad del hombre tal vez más importante que la política: la búsqueda de la Verdad

It was [John Gardner's] conviction that if the words in the story were blurred because of the author's insensitivity, carelessness, or sentimentality, then the story suffered from a tremendous handicap. But there was something even worse and something that must be avoided at all costs: if the words and the sentiments were dishonest, the author was faking it, writing about things he didn't care about or believe in, then nobody could ever care anything about it.

I don't fire up the prose. I just tell it straight and don't fool around with it.

The challenge is to write about real things magically.

Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had.

Do I have to be polite?" I asked. "Or can I just be natural?

Authenticity is boring, credibility is important

The first time we met I told you I was a detective. Get it through your lovely head. I work at it, lady. I don't play at it.

The first time we met I told you I was a detective. Get it through your lovely head. I work at it, lady. I don't play at it.

Intentan ser honestos, pero la honestidad es un arte. El mal escritor es deshonesto sin saberlo, y el escritor más o menos bueno puede que sea deshonesto porque no sabe sobre qué ser honesto.

Disenchantment is the blessing of becoming yourself.

Writing is often treated as a project of making things, one piece at a time, but you write from who you are and what you care about and what true voice is yours and from leaving all the false voices and wrong notes behind, and so underneath the task of writing a particular piece is the general one of making a self who can make the work you are meant to make.

Calling things by their true names cuts through the lies that excuse, buffer, muddle, disguise, avoid, or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness.

Not to know yourself is dangerous, to that self and to others. Those who destroy, who cause great suffering, kill off some portion of themselves first, or hide from the knowledge of their acts and from their own emotion, and their internal landscape fills with partitions, caves, minefields, blank spots, pit traps, and more, a landscape turned against itself, a landscape that does not know itself, a landscape through which they may not travel.

It has taken me most of my writing life to understand that my "writing place" is here where I live, and that my "writing voice" is just my regular old voice, the one I use all the time. I am aware that the most important things in my life and my work are so close to me that I didn't even fully recognize them for a long time.

I am the definition of a powerful woman. I love with my whole body, heart, and soul. I say whatever the fuck is on my mind. I make huge mistakes proudly. I rage with as much passion as I grieve. I live my poetry, my art.

So many of us were taught to keep a lid on anything and everything outrageous. To just turn it off. We turn off our life force, turn off our feelings, turn off our sensuality, and as a consequence, we turn off our power.

Solange wir das Glück suchen oder herbeisehnen, erfahren wir es nicht. Glück ist vielleicht das, was uns hinterher als solches erscheint. Wenn wir aber ganz darauf vergessen, ist es kurz zu haben. Glück widerfährt uns manchmal, wenn wir ganz wir selbst sind.

I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not - to smile sweetly all the time - just to get recognition and love. I won't play the whore for anyone, least of all for journalists. I can't do that. I want to be loved, yes, but the way I am and not the way people would like me to be. I have to be allowed to be myself.