Quotes About Self-expression

I do this sort of thing where, even for my own shows, I like to supply my own fingerprint of creativity. Not just ideas, technical things: offering model data, creating visuals for my stage show myself, babysitting renders, learning that technology as I go. That's what makes me feel like an artist.

Early in my career, playing a character was vital. I had to be Thomas Penmanship because I couldn't be Tommaso because he is a shy kid, so I had to create an alter-ego.

I vividly remember hearing the car pull into the driveway and looking into the mirror on my mom's vanity with a face full of makeup and the counter below me a mess; it sent me into complete panic mode. From there, I would steal bits of makeup where I could to start my own little collection and play in my bedroom with the door locked.

All my life, people have made fun of the way I speak. I guess because a lot of my vocabulary is made up of things that other people say. I started making fun of them and imitating them and now that's how I speak.

One reason I encourage people to blog is that the act of doing it stretches your available vocabulary and hones a new voice.

There might have been a point in my career where, because people have been telling me I'm an activist, I took on that label. But in retrospect, I don't think that's what I am - or what I've been - just because I'm vocal about my identity sometimes.

I'm sure any vocal teacher that listens to me would rather cut my throat than do anything - I do everything all wrong - but I think for me that's the best - because I don't think I have a voice so I think what I project would be style - if I learned to sing I'd lose my style.

As women, we have more of a tendency to be people-pleasers, and I know a lot of women who are not vocal about what makes them happy.

You see people you identify with, and you take pieces of people you like and shape who you are. Like, I sound just like my dad. But that's literally my vocal chords. I can't sound like anything else... I sound like him, but I act like myself.

It's quite different to do a vocal performance, opposed to a performance where you are seen, because in some ways, you don't need to worry about what you look like - you don't have to sit in a makeup chair for a long time!

I've been very vocal in the past about my mental health issues.

I was never a protestor, don't get me wrong, I was never like a vocal... what was the line I used to repeat to myself?... I was a nonconformist in a conforming society, that's what I thought about myself back in the '70s.

With 'A Million Miles,' I still was proving myself as a writer and as a vocalist. It gave me the platform to tour again.

There's not a whole lot to do in Athens. When I was 13, I just started entertaining myself by writing songs. I'd sit in my room for 10 hours playing the same song, stacking vocals, trying out different drum beats, realizing no one would ever hear this but having so much fun. I guess I got my voice from just doing that so often.

In my own studio, I can just lock the door and record myself, do layers of vocals not knowing how they are going to turn out, and just scrap it if it doesn't work. It's my space. I'm running everything.

Sometimes people won't be able to relate to you if you look like you're straight out of a full blown 'Vogue' magazine every time they see you.

I don't look at 'Vogue' to ask what I'm going to wear. Because it's something on a body too young. I have to look at the social pages to see women my age. To see how Amanda Burden is dressed and say, 'Hmmm. Maybe I should try that.'

Even with the beauty stories we put out, we saw there was an opportunity to address issues of representation, identity, self-expression. We created the community that we wanted to have at 'Teen Vogue.' We were willing to lose some to have more.

You don't want to disappoint anybody, but you know, you lose your voice by trying to please everyone.

I drink booze, I smoke, and I'm hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and even raise my voice when provoked. And I'm not physically repressed!

My motto is never to try to imitate anybody: I have always looked inward and followed the inward voice.

I thought everybody had falsetto. And since I wasn't a schooled singer who studied with anybody, I just thought anybody who had a voice could do anything they wanted with their voice.

Starting out, I bet I didn't get a lot of parts because of my strange voice. I'm not consciously thinking, 'Hey, sound like a squeaky dog toy mixed with a bagful of rusty nails.' It's just what my voice has done.

I realized that if I don't like something, I can change it. If I don't feel comfortable with something, then I have a voice to say it's not cool.