Quotes About Self-expression

Toughening up, performing masculinity, pretending to enjoy things I didn't enjoy all enabled me to dodge the gender policing of the adults around me. But the way I really was - the swished hips, the Double-Dutching, the hair flips - seemed to always prevail and attract Dad's disdain.

Just going out and seeing friends, not being cooped up in my house because I don't want to get my picture taken or anything like that - I've tried to let go of that stuff a bit, accept that it's going to happen to me, and not let it prevent me from doing anything I want to do, which I have in the past.

You must take the risk to disclose yourself in order to become more real, more human. And even if the price is high.

Within reason, I can write what I like and spend as long doing it as is necessary. That is a luxury beyond price.

Despite what people think of cowboys, they take pride in how they look, and that look is important to them.

At some point, the pride has to be a part of the whole day-to-day oeuvre. It's part of who you are and doesn't need to be discussed anymore.

I pride myself on being tragically uncool.

I don't ever assume that people are going to love or appreciate what I do. It would be great. I don't assume that they're not going to. I just am like, 'I'm going to do my absolute best at everything I do, and I'm going to put it out with pride and hope people enjoy it.'

I put myself out there, trying to prove that beauty is beyond size. It was risky, sure, but what I risked in terms of personal pride was nothing in comparison to what I was rewarded in terms of personal fulfillment.

Of course we are doing this primarily for ourselves, but I know our fans dig most of it, too.

If you want to be an entertainer and just keep your audience happy, that's one thing. But to be an artist, I think, means ultimately primarily pleasing yourself, and in that respect, you constantly have this sense of confronting the expectations of your audience.

Originality exists in every individual because each of us differs from the others. We are all primary numbers divisible only by ourselves.

I want to be a prime creator - as every self-regarding artist should do.

I depended a lot on being an over-the-top, ridiculous, obnoxious, Staten Island Princess. That's what I did, and I guess the rest is history.

I'm not a princess anyway so I find that quite weird to be labelled as one.

I would pretend to be a dark-skinned princess in the Sahara Desert or one of the Bantu women living in the Congo... imagining I was a different person living in a different place was one of the few ways... that I could escape the oppressive environment I was raised in.

I got my first leopard print coat when I was 15. I nearly got beat up, but I was happy with it.

People have drawn me, which is super cool. I'd love to print some out and put them on my wall.

I'm not being asked to conform to some prior expectation of what a Congress member is, but I'm just getting to be me.

Making independent films is liberating. It eliminates self-censorship, which mainstream films are infected with due to commercial priorities.

A lot of men and women don't like to prioritize fashion.

What a woman does or does not do to her face is personal. And as with most other things, makeup or a lack thereof can serve as either a prison or a fortress commanded by the mind: you can become a slave to it, or it can set you free.

I know I can't dance. I am the worst dancer. I have no rhythm. I just do step-and-snap. I love it in the privacy of my own home and every once in a while at a club. But singing and dancing are my two greatest fears.

I'd like people to get a sense of who I am, yet I want to keep my privacy, too.