Quotes About Self-expression

When I looked at people like Goya and Pina Bausch, the message I got was just do what you're passionate about. Don't think about what other people are going to say or how they're going to receive your work. Just be your work.

I like to do things in my own way and have my own personal language, but I can't control how it's received.

The more you work in this business as a comedian, the closer you get to just being yourself onstage, on camera, the more well received you are.

My most recent purchase was a black lace corset.

I was asked recently about the fact I show my body more in 'Homecoming Queens' than I have in other things and whether that was difficult to do. I never thought twice about it.

Trying to look cool and lovely in comedy is a recipe for disaster. You have to let go.

I've never got on with recipes. Free yourself - throw them out!

I went to dance class as a girl because I didn't like sports, but I never did a dance recital in my life. Never, ever, ever. I felt comfortable dancing, and I was happiest dancing, but I was never the best person in the class.

'Fat' was a terrible, terrible word for me growing up. When I was able to reclaim it and call myself fat and identify with it, that was the best moment ever. That was the moment I really started to feel free.

I have always been a recluse, but 'Bigg Boss' was one place I could share with the country the person I am.

I still have a good girl deep inside, but also recognise that it's worth saying things people will disagree with or get annoyed.

I remember going to a bookstore in Chennai and getting recognised as the 'Ahista' girl. The good thing about the video was the director let me do just what I wanted. And my costar in the video was really sweet. I think it came across well because I portrayed emotions just the way I would in real life. I was just being myself.

When I was 28, I made this film called 'Drinking Buddies' that I starred in and produced, and we improvised the entire thing, and it was a complete exercise in freedom of expression in making something for only the purpose of making it, not for recognition or money or anything else, and it's still my favorite thing I've ever done.

Creating my own world in a comic or selling my first penny newspaper aged nine was a way of gaining recognition and acceptance by my peers.

If you saw me without makeup, you wouldn't recognize me.

I don't want to be known as the black model. I want to be recognized as Chanel Iman, a personality.

I was intentionally curbing the impulse to be funny and hiding the ability. I wrote any number of very serious attempts at poems, short stories, novels - horrible. At a certain point, I recognized that it was fun to write dialogue that had a degree of lightness and humor.

As I got older, I had to learn to not have people speak for me. It was the first time I recognized, 'Oh, sometimes people are going to condescend to me because I'm a woman, or sometimes people aren't going to give me opportunities because of the way I look.'

I don't feel any great need to dress in funny-looking clothes and be recognized as a star, nor do I get that much satisfaction out of hanging around all the main clubs so people can see who I am.

I actually always had short hair as a kid, and it's really liberating. I recommend it. It's just very easy. I don't have to brush it.

It is almost impossible to reconcile self expression with the creative act.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

I'm very hard on myself as an artist to begin with, so I personally don't even think I have the proper chops to sell a record, but people think differently.

You don't need a record company to turn you into anything.