Quotes About Self-expression

When I was in school, if I was talking as myself and I was presenting something as myself or having to answer a question, I was so nervous. I would get red in the face; I would feel sweaty. I hated it. But anytime I was performing, like, if it was a talent show, or if it's through wrestling, I'm portraying or being someone else, I'm so comfortable.

I am wrestling with the overalls trend. I wore so many pairs in junior high, and no one thought they were cute. Perhaps I'll try them cuffed with a tasteful crop top?

One of the great things about wrestling is how it interrogates this silly idea that you have one authentic self.

If it took professional wrestling for people to recognize me as a person, then all the other endeavors I embark upon will explain me as a person, define me as a person, but wrestling will not define me.

If I put wrestling boots and wrestling trunks on one last time - and I'm going to - it's going to be done by me and me only.

I found out in pro wrestling that it works better if you just try and be yourself versus working on something you're not, so I'm me, and maybe it's magnified a bit, but it's easier just being me.

I've never tried to be like anybody else. I'm a non-conformist in every way, and when it comes to wrestling, that's certainly true, too.

I'm so confusing to wrestling promoters, and I'm used to that, but because I stayed in ECW and learned how to express myself the way, ah, that I could connect with my fans, it made my strong Rob Van Dam character uncompromising... and I owe that to ECW.

If I had my career to do over again, I think I would wrestle under my real name, John Hennigan, because if there was some sort of brand test associated with professional wrestling, I would hardcore fail that test because I have so many names, it's confusing to me, even.

I always encourage women to let their individuality show by not covering up what they perceive as flaws. When I see a woman with the natural wrinkles of time on her face, I do not see the wrinkles at all, but when I see a woman trying to cover them up with too much foundation or concealer, all I see are her wrinkles.

Growing up, I was a target. Speaking the right way, standing the right way, holding your wrist the right way. Every day was a test, and there were a thousand ways to fail, a thousand ways to betray yourself, to not live up to someone else's standards of what was accepted, of what was normal.

I know at one point I had bright red hair and I had bracelets from my wrist up to my elbow and I was wearing size 50 pants. I wouldn't wear that today, but I'm not embarrassed about wearing it back then any more.

When I write, I can shake off all my cares.

I'm not everybody's cup of tea. But sometimes criticism can be hurtful. Be respectful. I'm a good piano player, I can sing well, I write good songs. If you don't like it, fair enough. But give me a break.

Nobody has to give me permission to write.

When it was suggested that I write a memoir I said, 'I'm not old enough. I'm not distinguished enough.' But I went home and sat down to write, and the material for the book just came flooding into my hands.

I have always thought of poems as stepping stones in one's own sense of oneself. Every now and again, you write a poem that gives you self-respect and steadies your going a little bit farther out in the stream. At the same time, you have to conjure the next stepping stone because the stream, we hope, keeps flowing.

You have to write your own story, your own graph and rhythm.

I have more of a desire to write songs about being an independent woman than being in love, songs about getting up and moving on even if I have a broken heart. 'Wanna Say' is one of the few love songs I've ever done.

I wasn't Lennon, or I wasn't McCartney. I was me. And the only reason I started to write songs was because I thought, 'Well, if they can write them, I can write them.'

Don't try to guess what it is people want and give it to them. Don't ask for a show of hands. Try your best to write what you like, what you think your friends would like and what you think your father would like and then cross your fingers... The most valuable thing you have is your own voice.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

Reading the dictionary helps me express myself better. I can spend hours flicking through a thesaurus, too. It's not about expanding my vocabulary, it's just that I have a very specific taste with words. I'll sit and write lists of them to help me better describe my life.

I would be pleased if someone would invent a pill to remove my impatience, moodiness, and occasional bursts of anger. But if they did, I wouldn't be able to write my novels or paint.