Quotes About Authenticity

He once said that just bec ause you can go on at length doesn't mean that you have something to say, it doesn't mean you have a story to tell; just because you've been unlucky or short-changed or fucked over or fallen heavily on the thorns of life - that's no justification

The heart speaks in feelings, which can be more pure. Trust the heart; it has its own intelligence.

Invest the time to connect deeply with yourself and find out what you really want. The answer to the question "What do I really want?" may change at different times in your life, but the key is to answer it as fully and as authentically as you can for this moment, right now. No one else can define what your life's desires are, so you must be willing to question yourself rigorously and deeply.

If you want to appeal to the masses, make sure you appeal to the one. If you try to write with everybody in mind, you'll appeal to no one because everyone will think your book is for someone else.

People with dirty jobs are happier than you think. As a group, they're the happiest people I know.

Happiness does not come from a job. It comes from knowing what you truly value, and behaving in a way that's consistent with those beliefs.

Never! Never, Marge. I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the bluenoses with my cocky stride and musky odors -- oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called 'City Fathers' who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about "What's to be done with this Homer Simpson?

Regular church attenders tend to come to our places of worship to feel better, not to be hit with the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable, the threatening.

A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself or his causes.

I hated life in the Soviet Union. You had to pretend something you didn't feel.

To speak the truth is easy and pleasant.

The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes—never!

You shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet, especially from sites that can be edited by anyone with a working email address.

Kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.

We are not born knowing how to understand and express what is inside our souls. That kind of knowing ourselves requires contemplation and reflection. We have to learn to notice and be aware of our internal experiences, to search our hearts and find words for what is inside us. Being fully known and understood requires that we say aloud to someone else what is going on within our souls.

Although there are those who wish to ban my books because I have used language that is painful, I have chosen to use the language that was spoken during the period, for I refuse to whitewash history. The language was painful and life was painful for many African Americans, including my family. I remember the pain.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to play like yourself.

Naw, I wasn't going to sell my principles for them. I wanted to be accepted as a good musician and that didn't call for no grinning, but just being able to play the horn good. And that's what I did then and now. Critics can take that or leave it.

You can tell whether a person plays or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not. Then the way they talk and act. If they act too hip, you know they can't play shit.

Sometimes you have to play for a long time to be able to play like yourself.

I don't want to be perfect, but I do want to be a role model. My mom always tells me that imperfections equal beauty. All of us are imperfect.

Aren't liars just storytellers who hate themselves?

He wanted to be, to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes.

He didn't want to play this stupid game where they wouldn't talk about what was real.