I always think of myself as a working girl.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.

I’m very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me. I’m rather surprised at who I am, because I’m actually like my dad!

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

I’ve been writing since I was really young, so I considered myself a writer for a really long time.

We are the people our parents warned us about.

A poem is a naked person… Some people say that I am a poet.

One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.

When I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful.

What I’m denying is that I’m this cutthroat financier.

I think of myself more as a sportsman than I do an artist.

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

I am not some goddess that dropped down from the sky to sing pop music; I am not some extra-incredible human person that needs to be told how wonderful they are all day and kissed.

People should make up their own mind about what they think of me.

When people say, you know, ‚Good teacher,‘ ‚Prophet,‘ ‚Really nice guy’… this is not how Jesus thought of Himself. So you’re left with a challenge in that, which is either Jesus was who he said he was or a complete and utter nut case. You have to make a choice on that.

Hair is about when you’re younger. I am my hair.

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.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

You can call me the bad boy chef all you want. I’m not going to freak out about it. I’m not that bad. I’m certainly not a boy, and it’s been a while since I’ve been a chef.

You call yourself what you want to call yourself.

I actually don’t want a throne at all, because I don’t view myself as a queen; I view myself as one of my fans.

I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

When I think of myself, I think of Toronto. My music would never sound the way it does if it weren’t for Toronto.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

Once you’ve changed who you are or who you’ve portrayed in your music, the fans, they’ll catch it… Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.

If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.