Quotes About Independence

I never wanted to be a puppeteer. I stopped puppeteering when I was about 18. I puppeteered when I was eleven years old to 18 to make extra money to go to Europe, which I made half of and my parents gave me half.

In the inner city, there's a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I've gotta love me more than anybody else loves me.

It did not prepare me for writing or 'Power of Attorney.' However, what it did is that it forced me out of the DA's office. I stopped getting that county check.

I stopped caring what people thought.

My mom sees her sons as baby boys. Well, I stopped being her baby boy a long time ago.

A father draws boundaries and calls a halt, whenever necessary. As I didn't have that, I was able to stay childishly naive that much longer - so I did what I liked, because there was nobody stopping me, even when I got it wrong.

I chose busking because I didn't want to be working for someone else. I wanted to work as I am. I feel like you ultimately do have a choice if you have your vision. So, I had a vision forever that I was going to play music. And there was no stopping that.

I have complete creative freedom. If I want to put a song on the album, there's no one stopping me.

A country that relies on aid? Death is better than that. It stops you from achieving your potential, just as colonialism did.

I don't condemn anyone for making their choices. If someone chooses those roles, fine. But not for me. When someone stops me and says, You're the reason I became an actress, that lets me know I made the right decision.

Sometimes I finish a movie, and I get used to a certain lifestyle, and when that stops, I get a bit lost for about a week. 'No one is bringing me lunch anymore - I've got to go do that myself?' I lose the main point of my focus.

Without third parties, all forward movement stops. They're essential. They're not just OK. They are absolutely essential.

If you live your life by what others say, it stops being your life.

I try to make sure that my disability never stops me from doing what I want to do.

I know people think we drive around in these nice cars and we do whatever we want and our parents will pay our credit cards, but that's not the case. Sure, my parents were generous; I got a nice car at 16, but at 18 I was cut off. I've worked really hard. I opened the store myself.

I like being able to go to the grocery store and know that nobody knows what I do or who I am.

I go to the store. I go get my car fixed. I have friends. I have a life, but nobody needs to know about it. Because I'm just the same as anyone else.

My mother did literally hitchhike barefoot to the country store.

I don't care if you marry someone who works at the grocery store or someone who is a director of a company; everyone should have their own identity.

I started 'American Born Chinese' as a mini-comic. I would write and draw a chapter, photocopy a hundred or so copies at the corner photocopy store, and then try to sell them on consignment through local comics shops. If I could sell maybe half a dozen, I'd be doing okay.

My first job was at Baskin-Robbins. I made store manager at 16.

I got fired from my first job in a store when I was a student because I kept wearing my own things, and people kept asking me where they were from, and the owner of the store got annoyed with me. So I got fired because I couldn't afford to buy the clothes from the store.

There's no reason why there needs to be one search engine or one social network or one store that we buy all of our crap from. It's possible to imagine a world in which there's actually competition.

The way some papers write about me, you'd think I was some kind of gold digger. The truth is, I've always earned my own money. Before I became a model in Europe, I even worked in a bakery store - for $1.50 an hour. It's a big jump from a bakery store to driving a Mercedes in California, but I'm the same person inside.