Quotes About Authenticity

I write unreliable narrators because - paradoxically - they're the most honest, true-to-life kind there is.

In general, I think people should be skeptical of the Internet as a reference tool because so much of what's on it is unreliable and costumed - a hall of mirrors.

You won't find me out in a club. I'm a bit unruly, in my own way.

That's the thing I like about my sound. It's real raw and very unsafe compared to a solid state kind of sound.

A good novel should be deeply unsettling - its satisfactions should come from its authenticity and its formal coherence. We must feel something crucial is at stake.

It's been unsettling to discover that every form of narrative, even one that purports to tell the truth, is a kind of lying.

I love films that show people in a way that's so real it's almost unsettling, and that's what really inspires me because I write about people. I write about people that I know, so I want to portray them and portray myself in a way that is unapologetic.

There's this unspoken club where you say to each other: Oh God, if they only knew how ordinary I was, they wouldn't be interested. That includes movie stars and politicians.

That was very difficult for me on 'American Idol' to feel like I had to be a certain way. It wasn't that the producers were saying that you shouldn't be gay or whatever, but there was this unspoken energy around saying you have to appeal to Middle America, and Middle America at that point was not ready for all that.

I just feel like in society and in public, we have this unspoken expectation that we're all trying to meet. And there's so much pressure to try to fit in.

We need space to discuss unspoken, uncomfortable dark truths.

'Black-ish' is the cherry on the top of my career... When you come into your own, when you're in your skin, you're unstoppable, because you're living in the moment of life.

For a while, I tried to masquerade as somewhat of a hippie because I was under the impression that was the kind of guy girls would like. I was pretty unsuccessful because I liked the idea of camping more than actually camping. I did go to a Grateful Dead concert, but I was pretty bored.

When I started, I was very unsure of who I was. There were a lot of things in the songs that I didn't realize I was saying. But more and more, it fell into place... I got more comfortable in my skin.

Sucking up to a director means you are unsure of your talents. I'm not.

High school was hard for me. I tried really hard to fit in and said the things I thought people wanted to hear. But I was unsure of myself. I was self-conscious, and I didn't really know my place or where I fit in.

I related to 'Sierra' in the fact that I tend to come off as pretty confident in who I am, but definitely in high school I had a lot of insecurity and was unsure if I should be changing myself to fit in more.

You can't define yourself either in shades of what you are contesting or entirely in antithesis to it. By doing so, what you reveal is that you have nothing to say for yourself. Or that you are unsure of your messaging.

Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.

Most people don't know that I'm down to earth until they meet me.

Being an artist doesn't start because you're 21, and it doesn't end because you're 51. You are who you are until the day you die.

The truth is nobody was a Muslim until Public Enemy came out. Then, everybody was Muslim this and Muslim that. It's a bandwagon thing. Islam is a way of life... it's a religion. It's not just something you put on a record.

Until the contract is signed, nothing is real.

It's so much easier to like people, and to let people in, to trust them until they prove that you should do otherwise. The alternative is being an iceberg.