Quotes About Identity

I was always telling girls who said that they wanted to be the 'next' Kate Moss or the 'next' Gisele that it wasn't possible, because the 'next' girl wasn't going to look like anybody else; she would be somebody unique. If you look at all the great models... they all have an individual look.

I didn't want to be an author; I wanted to be a scientist. Not that I didn't love literature, but I couldn't distinguish it from reading, and reading was already my default activity, almost like breathing.

I think there's a misconception that all Asian-American experiences are the same. My experiences with my family and the way they wanted me to know my culture are not the same as others.

That's what I wanted 'Pirate Jenny' to be: a queer, revolutionary fairy tale for the people that I love.

If you'd asked me when I was six, 16, and 26, I wanted nothing more than to be a big, recognized rock star. Especially when I was six and 16, because I thought that if I was a known guitar player in a known band, only cute girls would talk to me.

I always wanted to be an explorer, but - it seemed I was doomed to be nothing more than a very silly person.

I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock.

There must've been some part of me that wanted to make my mark. But there was never a defining moment.

I tried college for three months but I was desperately unhappy. I just wanted to perform. I was getting straight As but I had no friends and cried every day.

As a teenager especially, I just wanted to do my thing and not be noticed.

I wasn't into making classmates laugh - or any of the comedy cliches. I wanted to disappear. I was a nonentity. I wasn't too clever but I wasn't in the bottom group. I wasn't loud but I wasn't quiet. I wasn't a bully and I wasn't bullied.

My father wanted a boy badly and didn't get one, so I was happy to be the surrogate boy. I was very strong, always doing manual labour.

Nothing in life prepared me for the way I felt about being a mother. Until then, I sort of felt like a blank sheet of paper. I was always trying to second-guess myself, to be what others wanted me to be.

I wanted a name I could shape the music towards. I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba - 'Lana Del Rey' reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.

I was never interested in being a rock star. I always wanted to be Boris Karloff.

That was it - I lost my job... I was very discouraged. I wanted to be in defense work... I'm an American, and I have nothin' to do with Japan, and so it's sort of an insult to me.

I was never a boy magnet at school. There was always the girl all the guys liked and wanted to date, but it was never me.

I went through a phase when I was 13 where I would only fall in love with people over the age of 19 or 20. I never had a real relationship with any of these people, but it was definitely the guy I wanted to hang out with and wanted to go on trips with. I would be like, 'But, Daddy, he's a musician!'.

My biggest problem in middle school was catty girls, cliques, and trying to figure out if I wanted to be a part of one of those, just figuring out who I was and all that.

Telling everyone I wanted to go into forensic anthropology was my form of rebellion.

I never wanted to change countries; it's something that is part of me.

All I wanted with that film was to represent the possibility that there might be normal people who are Muslim or Arab with the same fears, responsibilities, hopes.

I thought that I wanted to be a cheerleader because I was one in middle school.

When I entered high school I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went from being an A-student to a B-student to a C-student, but I didn't care. I was getting the high fives and the low fives and the pats on the back. I was cool.