Quotes About Authenticity

When I'm arguing with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, I'm going to tell him to ignore the Books Read column, and focus on the Books Bought instead. This is *really* who I am, I'll tell him.

I have made myself more complicated than I really am.

I hate calling him T-Bone. It sets my teeth on edge, like when you have to ask for a Big Heap Buffalo Billburger, when all you want is a quarter-pounder, or a Just Like Mom Used to Make, when all you want is a piece of apple pie.

Does that help? Probably not, unless you are sane enough to believe that the truth about anyone is disappointing, the truth about me especially so.

You can see this everywhere you go: young, middle-class people whose lives are beginning to disappoint them making too much noise in restaurants and clubs and wine bars. "Look at me! I'm not as boring as you think I am! I know how to have fun!" Tragic. I'm glad I learned to stay home and sulk.)

When they – I cannot bring myself to use the first-person plural in this instance.

So it's not about what you do. It can't be, can it? It has to be about how you are, how you love, how you treat yourself and those around you, and

Songs undressed like that, without a stitch of Stratocaster on them, are scary – you have to work them out for yourself.

So putting on my faded black jeans and my old Drive-By Truckers T-shirt was my way of being heard by the right people.

People are allowed to feel horny and fucked-up at the same time.

Ella pasó por una especie de Kramer contra Kramer en su día. Ya sabes, una de esas chaladuras presuntuosas en las que uno trata de averiguar quién demonios es. - ¿Y al final averiguó quién era? - No, no lo creo. Dudo mucho que alguien llegue a saber quién es de verdad, ¿no te parece?

I can't believe I told you all those things and we've ended up talking about how great I am.' 'But we're not. You've confused the two things again. You're not great. You're a shallow, feckless, self-indulgent... wanker.' 'Thanks.

I like to know that there are big places without windows where no one gives a shit. You need confidence to go into small places with regular customers—small bookshops and small music shops and small restaurants and cafés. I'm happiest in the Virgin Megastore and Borders and Starbucks and PizzaExpress, where no one gives a shit, and no one knows who you are.

Once again, Marcus was left with the feeling that Ellie didn't have to do what she had just done, and that she had brought the trouble she was in upon herself. He was tired of it. It wasn't real, and there was enough real trouble in the world without having to invent things.

We would all rather be loved for what we seem to be.

She was privileged enough to feel at home anywhere, and to equate squalor with authenticity.

Fiindca toata lumea are o notiune exacta despre cum trebuie sa traiasca..

Beauty is not always as perfect as we imagine it to be, but it can be damn close if we learn to accept the scary parts or the ugly parts.

Professional mourners may shed real tears.

She could become anyone she wishes. But how will she know she is still herself?

When you fight to be taken seriously, you don't smile in photos.

We are more than half of humanity. We are not imitation people, or chameleons taking on protective male coloration, longing for the day when men go away and we can return to being our true, insectlike selves. We are here, now. We are just like you.

Find out who you are, and do it on purpose.

I see someone who's really good at saying the right things, but when push comes to shove, doesn't mean a thing he says.