Quotes About Identity

You can perform all kind of characters but you cannot change what people feel for you.

I was king of the mountain for a long time, well, I don't want that no more. I like to perform every once in a while for people who want to see me, and cut albums of music that is what I'm really about.

Even as one and the same person is called by different names according to the different functions he performs, so also one and the same mind is called by the different names: mind, intellect, memory, and egoity, on account of the difference in the modes - and not because of any real difference.

For me, I've always told myself, 'I can only do me in the ring.' When I go out there and perform, I can only do what Sasha Banks can do.

For me, choosing to perform in drag, because of all the things I enjoy about it, is a political act.

People know who you are when you've never met them. For them, through interviews and seeing you perform, they feel like they know you and you've never seen them before. It's really different, but it's awesome.

Latinos are very passionate, and they perform a lot, and look at me, I'm talking with my hands, and this is just my normal self, so it kind of allows me to be who I am and not dumb it down.

As actors, we're like these vagabond artists: we have to be invited to perform, so if you don't have a choice of options, it's very hard to define yourself.

I'm a musician. I'm not, like, a personality. I've never really pretended to perform that kind of function.

People tend to remember my performances, not me.

My identity is not based on performance; it's based on something that's pre-determined by someone else, and I don't even understand what that is because I'm an African who came to America.

Since 1993, I have had the rich satisfaction of knowing and working with many openly gay and lesbian Americans, and I have come to realize that 'gay' is an artificial category when it comes to measuring a man or woman's on-the-job performance or commitment to shared goals. It says little about the person.

When you see my performances, even people that you might have known, like Nicky Barnes in 'American Gangster,' you have to get over the fact that I look like Cuba Gooding, Jr. But once you find truth in the performance, if I'm doing my job right, you believe everything.

After I did Untamed Heart I wanted to do a film that was outrageous. I really wanted to do, you know, a performance. I don't want to allow my image to rule the choices that I make.

Being on the run wasn't fun, but it was something I had to do. I was actually working in legitimate jobs. I wasn't living on people's credit cards. I was living like a character out of a movie. It was performance art.

I went into boxing, and I'm bisexual, and I still achieved and performed at the highest level, and I came away with gold and made history, so with that said, anything is possible.

I have performed for people around the world but it is always a different feeling when you perform for your own people.

The routines of any ethnic comic - Eddie Murphy or George Lopez, for example - would not work if they were performed by anybody outside the group. The same routines would become arrogant and racist.

Because it's our first official album, we wanted to show our color, the color of Blackpink. We wanted to present an image that people would think of when they think of Blackpink, and what kind of music we put out... we channeled the girly side of ourselves and performed according to the girly lyrics.

I'm not a natural born performer.

To get even realer with you for a second, as a black actor, as a performer of color, I don't know how many more roles like Aaron Burr are gonna come along for me.

A performer needs to feel the part to be the part!

I always felt of myself as a composer, performer, improviser. I've never called myself a jazz man. I make art.

I never wanted to perform and never proclaimed myself to be a performer.