Quotes About Authenticity

All I see is someone running away from who he really is. I ain't running away, I called back. And that was the biggest lie I'd ever told.

True greatness is not about comparisons with others. Rather, it's about being the best possible version of myself each and every day!

People tended to be fascinated or repelled by him, as he was very direct in his approach to people and was impatient of any pretentiousness.

Don't concentrate on becoming a better humor writer, just concentrate on being the best writer that you can become. If you're funny, the work will end up being funny. And if you're not funny, the work will still end up being good. Concentrate on being the most honest writer you can be, and let everything else follow--because it will.

measure up - disillusion us by showing

All men are liars, said Roberta Muldoon, who knew this was true because she had once been a man.

there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.

Know the story before you fall in love with your first sentence. If you don't know the story before you begin the story, what kind of a storyteller are you? Just an ordinary kind, just a mediocre kind – making it up as you go along, like a common liar.

An affection that was calculated was never trustworthy.

If you don't feel you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then what you're doing probably isn't very vital. If you don't feel that you are writing somewhat over your head, why do it? If you don't have some doubt of your authority to tell this story, then you're not trying to tell enough.

The point was - he wasn't acting . It was as if he'd forgotten how! Jack still knew his lines, but he was out of character... Jack had stopped acting. He was just Jack Burns - the real Jack Burns at last.

A book feels true when it feels true, she said to him, impatiently. A book's true when you can say, 'Yeah! That's just how damn people behave all the time.

It's hard to pretend to be born without causing offense.

I just don't dare to make up everything, like you do." I don't make up everything, but when I use things that actually happened, I always change something; I try to make what happens not exactly true.

Adam, we can't make being safe the guiding principle of our lives. We have to be who we are—we can only do what we do, sweetie.

If you're living the way you want to, the concept of holidays becomes obsolete.

If you're fortunate enough to discover a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

It's a good job to lose!" Jack called after them, but they kept walking. He was so bad as Melody, even Wild Bill Vanvleck would have made him repeat the line. The point was—he wasn't acting. It was as if he'd forgotten how! Jack still knew his lines, but he was out of character. He had a sister, and he loved her; she'd said she loved him, too. Jack had stopped acting. He was just Jack Burns—the real Jack Burns at last.

Some unexplainable things are real.

Unrevised, real life is just a mess.

Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean-- make sure they know what they mean!

Nothing draws us closer to one another than the degree to which we face our deepest shame openly in one another's company. Coleridge and Wordsworth dreaded such self-exposure; we adore it. What we want is to feel known, warts and all—the more warts, the better. It is the great illusion of our culture that what we confess to is who we are.

If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

I love you the more in that I believe you had liked me for my own sake and for nothing else.