Quotes About Authenticity

When I think about any of the missteps in my life that I've made, all of which I'm grateful for, it's because I just so wanted to be truly seen and heard for who I am and was afraid I wasn't or wouldn't be.

When I grew up and went to school, all the cool kids were in Carhartts and Mudd boots, and they were listening to the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers and driving Volkswagens.

It's very gratifying sometimes to make yourself the butt of the joke because it bursts your bubble.

There's nothing gratuitous about my films.

I do say no to things that I think are completely gratuitous.

To say what you feel is to dig your own grave.

I don't want to take anything to the grave. I want to die used up and emptied out. I don't want to carry around anything I don't have to. I want to travel light.

If a guy is just genuine and honest, girls gravitate towards that, and girls love it when you open up.

I think musicians naturally gravitate toward music that sounds real.

That's how things work: you be who you are, and then people like you. They gravitate.

I'm so down to earth, I'm bringing gravity back.

You can't worry about looks. It's about the inside at the end of the day because we're all going to get old and gray one day.

Whenever I put on a colored thing, I feel like I'm in a costume. Like when I put on a gray shirt.

Embrace the grease, if any, and look fresh and human. I like to look like a glazed doughnut.

That seems to me the great American danger we're all in, that we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it.

It has cost me a great deal to become myself. I don't want to be another person.

If you're just making a record to pay the bills, that's not a great idea because chances are it might not come out that good.

I didn't come out for 21 years because I thought that everything I wanted to do with my life - have a family, get a great job, make a change in this world - that the moment I came out, that I would not be able to do any of those things.

Where is this great love for rock and roll that existed for 50 or 60 years?

I'm not trying to compete with any other revival soul acts. It's just Leon Bridges, a kid from Fort Worth trying to be himself and give people hope. It's great music to dance to and just love.

I think great music sells records, and I also think, do you want to be a reality star, or someone that actually has credibility? Because you can't have both.

Great music and great artists create their own music and look and are not manufactured.

People loved me because I'm a great person to be friends with, but when it comes down to drag, I didn't want them to think badly of me.

Luckily, I don't have to be anybody but Yolanda, because people don't expect me to be anything other than who I am. For an artist, it's a great place to be.