Quotes About Authenticity

I don't think you want too much sincerity in society. It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards.

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries Out of old mythologies From heel to throat; But the fools caught it, Wore it in the world's eyes As though they'd wrought it. Song, let them take it, For there's more enterprise In walking naked

there is no truth Saving in thine own heart. -from "The Song of the Happy Shepherd

Go on, live in your poultry-yard. Scratch straw and cluck and cackle at everything that you take for a fox. [Exit.

Don't be a luddy-duddy! Don't be a mooncalf! Don't be a jabbernowl! You're not those, are you?

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.

The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it.

So I wish you first a Sense of theatre; only Those who love illusion And know it will go far: Otherwise we spend our Lives in a confusion Of what we say and do with Who we really are.

An honest self-portrait is extremely rare because a man who has reached the degree of self-consciousness presupposed by the desire to paint his own portrait has almost always also developed an ego-consciousness which paints himself painting himself, and introduces artificial highlights and dramatic shadows.

Only as I am, can I love you as you are

When a reviewer describes a book as 'sincere,' one knows immediately that it is a) insincere (insincerely insincere) and b) badly written.

The great vice of our age […] is that we are all not only 'actors' but know that we are ('reduplicated Hamlets'), and that it is only at moments, in spite of ourselves, and when we least expect it, that our real feelings break through.

The kind of people I absolutely cannot tolerate are those who never let you forget they are religious. It seems to me that a truly religious person would let his life be example enough, would not let his religion interfere with being a human being, and would not be so insecure as to have to fawn publicly before his gods.

Everything that does not need you is real

If you have tapped into something that is real for you, chances are you are going to tap into something that is real for someone else.

Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.

It is the highest form of culture and craftmanship in art to use local materials. That way you stand a chance of adding to culture. The other way you are in danger of merely imitating it.

I didn't want to be a headshot and get a chance to go compete to sing-that's not me.

Write what you care about. If you do that, you stand the best chance of doing your best writing.

I can't wait til I get the chance to be a character and how my face looks isn't the first consideration.

Many people wait throughout their whole lives for the chance to be good in their own fashion.

You can't say the public likes generic characters. Give others a chance, go for a more rooted and honest characterisation, take some risk, and then let the public choose.