Quotes About Authenticity

Just as I never liked bumper stickers - even though I do brake for animals, and if I had a kid, she would definitely be an honor student - I don't like the idea of expressing my views through social-media-controlled rainbow-or-anything-else-ification.

I think you shouldn't get my music confused with who I am or who we are, because Yung Lean, from the beginning, is like a character created by me. Yung Lean was everything that Jonatan wasn't. And so me, as a person, and my views on things are certainly different than Yung Lean's views, so you should definitely not get those two mixed up.

I'm not ashamed of my social media following, my Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot, or the tough time I had in my LPGA debut, but these small facets of my life are easily manipulated by the Internet to get views, and they don't define me as a person.

A man who wants to beat my face in because he wants to be the best in the world, that makes sense. But a boy, a child who runs his mouth for likes and views and jumps on a side that he has no information on, no idea about, it's kind of sad to me. So I don't respect that at all.

It's important to be vigilant at all stages of the making of a film. The theme of a work should be represented properly.

There's nothing nicer than coming back to your village, where people like my mum's friends take the mick out of me. I prefer that to the craziness of Hollywood.

Cancer doesn't just happen to me; it happens to my best friend; it happens to everyone who means something in my life... The truth is, it does take a village to take care of somebody who's sick, and so we just, at all times, tried to be authentic to the actual experience we had.

Being a teenager in a small Austrian village was not fabulous. I tried to fit in and changed myself to be part of the game. I now realise I can create the game.

I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.

I don't have any romantic notions about villages.

Guidebooks used to write the name of my city in two ways: Gjirokaster in Albanian, and Argyrokastron for foreigners. The classical-sounding name somehow gave it better credentials, because people in the Balkans famously exaggerate and often call their villages cities.

I prefer a real villain to a false hero.

People wanted me to be like the Madonna, the white nun, you know, and that's not me. But I'm no villain.

There's not one part of me that wants to go crazy and do anything out of the ordinary, but it would be nice to do something and not have it spread all over the place. But that's the world we live in now, and you either have to accept it or figure it out - or become a villain, I guess.

I hope we can see African American characters as the diva, as the villain, and also as the praying mother. We are all of those things. We tended to only be the best friend or the neighbor in everybody's sitcom.

Sometimes, you have to reject a few, because of the maker, because of the money. But I try to play every role honestly, be it big or small, hero or villain.

I'm not interested in the heroes or the villains. I'm interested in playing people.

I'm very proud that I can be myself. I'm not trying to be Arabic, I'm just being me, and I happen to be Arabic. I think that might be refreshing to some people, and it's a bit more realistic than these pantomime villains we've seen before.

There's a Nina Simone record that I love, 'Live at Vine Street,' and she sings flat on it. I can imagine she might've told the record label, 'Oh, God, you're not releasing that!' But I'm glad they did.

I am from the working class. I am now what I was then. No amount of balsamic vinegar and Prada handbags could make me forget what it was like to be poor.

I think 'BB Ki Vines' became popular because viewers could relate to it.

The truth is the Vintage Vitor never left.

I don't do the vintage thing so much, just because it's not me. There are some vintage designers I'll buy things from, but mostly not.

I just want to clear something up... vintage doesn't mean cheap.