Quotes About Authenticity

I strongly prefer to keep my hair loose and wavy, leaving it as natural as possible.

I think little things are more powerful because they're more honest, so people feel them more strongly.

The intent of Slayer's musical and lyrical content has always been selfish. We feel very strongly about the importance of staying true to ourselves.

What I'm mainly interested in is not having women characters that have to be perfect, obviously. That's something I feel strongly about and have that in every single thing I've ever done.

Hand-drawn animation is something that I feel really strongly about. A Pixar movie may be really great, but it looks like it was drawn by a machine.

I'm very selfish. I make music that I love because I only live once, and I'm an artist. I don't try to revolt against anybody, and I don't try to please anybody. I feel very strongly that I if love it, someone else will love it - not everybody, though.

I strongly believe that music comes from the soul and no amount of technology can 'manufacture' that.

I feel strongly that I need to try to make my shows as real as possible. What you see is what you get.

The biggest compliment to me is that guys really approach me and they have a connection with me, so there must be something I'm doing that is authentic, otherwise they wouldn't connect with me so strongly. It's a real compliment.

I think what people respond to, and what they're responding to so strongly, is I'm very myself on stage. What you see in person is very much who I am on stage.

I just really strongly promote pushing against this culture of perfection. I mean, I'm sorry, for me, Spanx don't feel good. I've tried one of those waist-trainer things on - that hurt like the bejesus.

I hope people gravitate to me because I am a real person, and I strongly believe if you put out good energy, it will come back to you.

Writing can flow out when I'm feeling something strongly, whether that's joy, pain, fear, desire or anything else. The challenge is actually later, in the second or third or 100th draft of the music, when it can be so easy to cover up the original sentiments by making the music more ornate or cloaked.

New York has influenced me a lot in terms of my own independence. I'm really struck by the idea of authenticity, and I think New York embodies that idea, even though people are like, 'I miss the old New York.' But at its core, it has this natural, authentic energy. L.A. lacks that idea; it's painted over.

If I did the structure and had this thing about a straight character, I would never have a sex scene to prove that he's heterosexual. If I have a gay character in a movie, I need to have a sex scene in it - just to prove that he's gay?

Early on, I had to structure my ideas of success around things like, 'Can I go back and listen to the record months or years after I made it and still get some enjoyment out of it?' Or 'Have I said what I wanted to say on this album? Did it connect with people on a personal level, even if it's a small number of people?'

I don't do my hair very perfectly because I think it looks sexier when you don't have everything perfectly structured out.

Scripts can be slick and structured, but do they always contain the truth?

Our biggest struggle as human beings is to project ourselves as something that society has deemed admirable or likable instead of being honest.

My biggest fear is becoming a parody of myself. That's something I struggle with.

I met a lot of famous people when I was about 24. And none of them seemed very appealing. And so I didn't know why I would struggle to be that kind of person.

People assume when they come into a church and see a person up there speaking, 'That person must be a good person.' My challenge through the years has been believing that: 'I guess I must be a really good person.' I struggle with it. It just helps me to keep that confessional posture.

The Christian community latched onto a lot of my music, because there were a lot of things about my struggle they related to. But I didn't really want to come out and be identified as a Christian, because I didn't want to be a hypocrite, because my life wasn't right.

Sometimes it's a struggle to keep up with my own photos, where the lighting is perfect, the makeup is done, and the images have been retouched. That's not what I see when I look in the mirror!