Quotes About Self-expression

Pop music provides not just the soundtrack to our lives, as the cliche goes; it releases our emotions and helps us to articulate them. This is why music is so important to adolescents, who are struggling with questions of identity and self-expression.

You don't give yourself a nickname unless you're bloody struggling.

There's a fine line between saying, 'You can't tell me what I can and can't do,' and taking on board people's opinions.

We just have to get over the fact that, yes, people are not going to be the same. They're not going to look the same, they're not going to have the same opinions because we're all unique.

I try to ignore people's opinions about my music - you don't want to hold yourself back because of that stuff.

I have been told too much - to talk less, to keep my opinions to myself, to not sound intelligent - all this was told to me so that I could fit in. But I never thought I fit in anyway. So if you don't fit in, at least stand out.

I will make it a point to voice my opinions. But if I am at fault, I will also apologise.

Any opportunity to adorn oneself is human, and accessories are an easy way to do it.

If someone has the opportunity to become a model, I would say, 'Do it.'

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

I'm just living my life the way I want to live it, as opposed to the way people think I should live it.

Play as well as you can; that's it, as opposed to creating these odd paranoias, trying to be something you're not.

If you're 100% yourself, then you're going to be different no matter what. I have this self-honesty approach as opposed to an ego that a lot of musicians put up. I can be myself, and that's just enough to stand out.

Comedy has allowed me to be my 100-percent-true self, as opposed to other places, where I feel like that's been a hindrance. Whether it's music or poetry or hosting, people want you to be something else: they want you to be packaged in a certain way.

Obviously I've gone out of my way in my career to not look good, so it's always nice to, every once in a while, get the opposite going.

Actors have either got to play something that's close to them, or something that's the complete opposite.

I've always been the opposite of mainstream. I march to my own beat. It's the only way I know.

Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I'm past that age.

People say, 'You should let your hair out; you shouldn't be oppressed - you're not in Malaysia anymore. You should show your curves and be proud of it.' But I am proud - it's my choice to cover up my body. I'm not oppressed - I'm free.

I don't think I'm the 'Oprah' type.

I thank my mum, dad, and home for keeping me in touch with my own country and my own land. I can be in the studio with Snoop Dogg or singing for Oprah, but I'm still me.

Pinterest is a positive, optimistic place online. You spend time on what you want, not what you share with others.

The two times I have cut my hair shorter, I've ended up out of work - so short hair is not an option.

I was an only child who was never really good at anything else. I had no other option. I could write; I wanted to write; I wrote. Otherwise, I was unemployable.