Quotes About Authenticity

There was something punk rock about Bobby Kennedy not going where the pollsters said or where consultants said. He was unmoored from what was safe or easy.

A lot of people think that punk rock musicians don't know what they're doing.

I play really bad punk rock guitar.

I was into punk rock my whole life. I never listened to the Eagles. I never listened to things that were getting Grammys. So getting a Grammy nomination wasn't bad, it just wasn't meaningful.

I think, fundamentally, the core of everything I do is punk rock.

We take a lot of inspiration from punk rock and early rock 'n' roll from the '50s and early '60s.

This is what I would say to my pupil: 'You have become only your fame and left behind most of who you were. How are you going to deal with that? Will you lose that person forever? Have you become someone else without really knowing it? Do you always have to stay in character for people to like you? Do you know that you are in character?'.

The pop-star thing bores me because it's somebody programming someone else. Stand over here, sing that, no, sing it like this, talk like that, when they ask you this, don't say that, say this, hold that, drive this, stay here, live there - you're not even a human being. You're a puppet.

It's better to be known as a puppet than pretend not to be a puppet like Nawaz Sharif.

Puppets can get away with saying things that human beings can't. Because they are cartoonish just to look at, they're not real, you can assign them insane things to feel and vocalize.

The way I talk to the puppets is real, and it's in the moment, and it's seeing what will happen. It's not something that is scripted.

No one wants to read a story where I saw a cute puppy on the street and I petted it. I mean, that's not funny. I only write about the funny stuff.

It's a vanity to think that a legitimate shamanistic experience can be purchased.

Purchased experiences don't count.

People want to connect with what they're purchasing.

There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial.

People came to my parents' parties because they were going to have fun and, if lucky, our mother would belly dance. What they didn't know was that the hostess made sure every morsel placed in front of them was pure and without anything artificial, no matter what the cost.

All my books started out as extravagant and ended up pure and plain.

When I'm doing drag, I get to just be a pure channel for it.

I feel so pure in heart.

I don't know anyone who's 100 percent pure - nor do I have any interest in portraying anyone like that.

The way we're going about things and what we want to do, we feel it has to be a really pure essence of music. That's where you get the most out of it.

I never really feel wrong while making movies. I know myself, and I know that my intentions are pure and I'm on the side of righteousness.

'Lead with LUV' is the first book I've ever done that's just a pure conversation between my coauthor and me.