Quotes About Self-expression

When I was very young, it was all, 'Here's little Johnny,' and I got stuck with it, but I prefer John. There comes a time in a man's life when he shouldn't have a name ending in 'y'.

My mom never let me dye my hair, and I would beg her every single day. When I was 16, I told her I wanted to dye it purple, and she let me - probably because she never thought I'd actually do it. Then I just stuck with it.

I wear anything I feel like. If I want to put on a pair of Converse with a pencil stuck through them, I will.

When the other kids started calling me nicknames, I knew everything was all right. I have a pretty big mouth, so they hit on that and began calling me Gatemouth or Satchelmouth, and that Satchelmouth has stuck to me all my life, except that now it's been made into 'Satchmo' - 'Satchmo' Armstrong.

If I want to put on a pair of Converse with a pencil stuck through them, I will.

I was always Missy, never Melissa. I went to college, and I thought it was so much more interesting to go by a different name, and then it just kind of stuck.

It took me quite a while to find my natural voice. I'm glad I stuck around long enough to see that happen.

Growing up, people always told me my name had a ring to it. People always remembered my name and so I wanted to think of something that was very similar to it. I just stuck an 'E' between the 'B' and the 'L,' made it from Bianca Blair to Bianca Belair. That's where that name came from.

I'm happiest on set because I'm not myself. I'm someone else. The moustache, the dinner jacket. It's not me. You're always this sort of double, and it's liberating. Imagine being stuck with yourself... all those doubts.

Even as a kid in drawing class, I had real ambition. I wanted to be the best in the class, but there was always some other feller who was better; so I thought, 'It can't be about being the best, it has to be about the drawing itself, what you do with it.' That's kind of stuck with me.

I paint and I draw and I write and I do other things too, and recently some people at school were asking if I'd ever publish any of my work. But I almost feel like I would have to publish it under another name because there's a definition of me out there that feels kind of stuck in the moment when it was formed.

If you try to talk about yourself honestly when you're an actor, you come off as stuck on yourself.

I stuck out more in an English public school than I would have had I marched in a May Day parade with the Red Army in Moscow or sashayed the Yves St. Laurent catwalk with supermodels or hunted seals with the Inuit or - well, you get the idea.

I've always had my ear pierced with a diamond stud. I did it myself when I was 16.

Finally, I was no longer a student and was making music for myself.

I'll be honest; I'm a student of fashion. I say that because I just wear what I feel. I'm not led by name brands and things like that.

Punk rock and skateboarding took the 'school' out of living your life, and I related to learning as I went, doing a lot of different things that I liked, when I liked. Consequently, I'm mediocre at all of the above, but still stoked on being a lifetime student of music, skating, painting, writing, etc.

At the Harvard Business School, I really felt I had gained the ability to resolve difficult issues. But I also felt that I wasn't in the mainstream with my fellow students. During job-hunting season, for example, everybody shaved their beards for interviews. I thought, 'This is crazy.' So I grew a beard.

I definitely try to be myself and not try to imitate other performers. That's why I got my music degree. I wanted to be prepared and not be a 'product.' I want people to know that I'm not only a singer but a musician as well. I studied guitar, piano, and composition. I believe that it's just about being myself on and off stage.

I don't think I am an actor, because I haven't studied to be an actress.

I haven't studied art and I haven't studied typography, but I've still gone out and done it.

Today's kids have a mind of their own, and they know how to exercise it. Even if I wanted to tell Sara or my son Ibrahim how to lead their lives - which I don't - they would not listen to me. Luckily, Sara chose to complete her studies before pursuing acting. She attended Columbia University and then devoted her attention to Bollywood.

I feel most confident when I am in a dance studio alone.

Now, you can just get a laptop, get some software, put a microphone on it and make a record. You have to know how to do it. It does help if you've had 35 or 40 years of experience in the studio. But, it still levels the playing field so artists can record their own stuff.