Quotes About Authenticity

there is only one you, and no one can do things exactly the way you do. Never worry about the competition.

often in people's 30s or 40s, a stage where you begin crafting your own language for what you do as an increasingly "strong poet"—you make your craft your own and view your life as more self-expression than simply playing out other people's roles for you.

When I articulated that I didn't care anymore about what anybody thought about what I did except me, all the weight of the world came off my shoulders, and everything became possible. It shifted to everybody else [being] worried. Now they're worried. But everything for me, it shifted to a place where I felt free.

Money doesn't change you; it reveals who you are when you no longer have to be nice.

Part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not.

By focusing inward on yourself as a writer instead of outward on what you think readers will want to read, you'll end up creating the best and most original work, and that one-in-a-thousand person who happens to love it will end up finding their way to you.

Remember Who You Are

The disease of our times is that we live on the surface.

The core of it was to be your unapologetically weird self. I think authenticity is one of the most lacking things out there these days.

Ultimately, your gift to the world is being who you are. It is both your gift and your fulfillment.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." –Frederick Douglass

don't confuse being driven with being authentically animated by an inner calling. One state leaves you depleted and unfulfilled; the other fuels your soul and makes your heart sing.

Life will go faster than you know. It will be tempting to live a life that impresses others.

Were my goals my own, or simply what I thought I should want? How much of life had I missed from underplanning or overplanning?

The lesson: Rather than striving to be superhuman, I would aspire to be less "super" and more "human.

When we fail to reason honestly, we have lost our connection to the world and to one another.

Excuse me. I know this is going to sound strange, but if I don't ask you now, I'll be kicking myself for the rest of the day. I'm running to meet a friend [i.e., I have friends and am not a stalker], but I think you're really [extremely, drop-dead] cute [gorgeous, hot]. Could I have your phone number? I'm not a psycho—I promise. You can give me a fake one if you're not interested.

You learn the secret of this business, which is there's no secret. Be yourself.

Primero, edito para mí (¿qué me gusta?). En segundo lugar edito para mis seguidores (¿qué sería lo más entretenido y útil para mis seguidores?).

Be bold and don't worry about what people think. They don't do it that often anyway.

The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That's the moment you may be starting to get it right." —Neil Gaiman, University

The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That's the moment you may be starting to get it right." —Neil Gaiman, University of the Arts commencement speech

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

never forget that underneath all the math and the MBA bullshit talk, we are all still emotionally driven human