I do have a vulnerable side. I think a lot of people have a misperception of me. They only see the tough, defensive, aggressive side. But every woman is vulnerable.

Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn’t think I could read, much less write.

There was a point where I really felt I had ‚penniless divorcee lone parent‘ tattooed on my head.

There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, ‚That person I see is a savage monster;‘ instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

I have trust issues with allowing other individuals to know my innermost secrets for fear of how I may be viewed. Everyone has this.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.

I have never felt that the one thing that I am ‚known for‘ is what I am.

One of the things I did when I discovered this huge importance of being vulnerable is very happily moved away from the shame research, because that’s such a downer, and people hate that topic. It’s not that vulnerability is the upside, but it’s better than shame, I guess.

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.

I don’t think a lot of people know personally who I am.

Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow – that’s vulnerability.

I am not handsome or sexy. Of course, it’s not like I am hopeless.

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.

I’m as skeptical as anyone would be about celebrities and causes – and I will dare to say to you that I don’t think of myself as a celebrity per se.

I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.

Live-tweeting your bikini wax is not vulnerability. Nor is posting a blow-by-blow of your divorce . That’s an attempt to hot-wire connection. But you can’t cheat real connection. It’s built up slowly. It’s about trust and time.

Security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit; your machine can be taken over totally.

There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

I tend to get bored quickly, which means I must be boring.

I don’t want to look sloppy, because then I feel sloppy.

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.

I’d always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age.

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

This is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It’s all hip-hop. You can’t say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what? You felt his soul on those records.

Beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won’t like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it’s based on femininity.

I’ve never been an intellectual but I have this look.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.

I do not see myself as a celebrity or an icon or things like that… I have not really done anything.

I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

Men walk this tightrope where any sign of weakness illicits shame, and so they’re afraid to make themselves vulnerable for fear of looking weak.

We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing.

People were saying that David Geffen and I had gotten married and it just blew me away. Not that they thought I was gay, but that they thought I could land a guy that hot.

I’m not intimidated by how people perceive me.

Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off.

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.

I’ve never seen myself as a star. I never call myself a celebrity or a superstar, whatever.

Myths which are believed in tend to become true.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

I want to let you in on a little secret: I don’t always feel like I’m a success. That’s right. There are plenty of times when I feel like I’ve just totally messed up and failed to connect with the people I’m trying to communicate with.

I’ve been writing poems since I was in the Navy – to Rosalynn. I found I could say things in poems that I never could in prose. Deeper, more personal things. I could write a poem about my mother that I could never tell my mother. Or feelings about being on a submarine that I would have been too embarrassed to share with fellow submariners.

Folk music is a bunch of fat people.

It’s the poorer people in tropical zones who will get really hit by climate change – as well as some ecosystems, which nobody wants to see disappear.

People like to build their own story about my life. I don’t know if it makes them feel better, or if it makes it okay for them to not like me, but the last thing I grew up as was rich.

I’ve always felt heroic about my life… As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.

I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men’s clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.

I think I’ve committed the one really bad English crime, which is I’ve risen above my station. I was supposed to be a pop star, and suddenly I’m claiming that I’m an artist of some kind.