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.

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

I’m not ashamed to say I fear something.

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’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn’t bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn’t have any brains. I didn’t know what I was doing there. That’s why I became an actor.

I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself – let’s put it that way.

I never saw myself as a folk singer.

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

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

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.

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.

Sometimes I’m a bit under-aggressive and sometimes a bit over. But I think it’s good to have both.

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.

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.

I hate being called an ‚icon.‘ I just don’t like it. That’s all there is to it.

The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

The intention and outcome of vulnerability is trust, intimacy and connection. The outcome of oversharing is distrust, disconnection – and usually a little judgment.

These things bring you to reality as to how fragile you are; at the same moment you are doing something that nobody else is able to do. The same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile.

When you stop caring what people think, you lose your capacity for connection. When you’re defined by it, you lose our capacity for vulnerability.

Because I’m small, I’ve been called things from ‚Happy Feet‘ to ‚Little Face.‘

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

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

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

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

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 laid my friends bare.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

I’m not intimidated by how people perceive me.

It’s so much easier to like people, and to let people in, to trust them until they prove that you should do otherwise. The alternative is being an iceberg.

I definitely feel closer to the feminine side of the human being than I do the male – or the American idea of what a male is supposed to be. Just watch a beer commercial and you’ll see what I mean.

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

Terrorists are not following Islam. Killing people and blowing up people and dropping bombs in places and all this is not the way to spread the word of Islam. So people realize now that all Muslims are not terrorists.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn’t say I lived in a ghetto; I’d say I lived in the ‚hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.

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

A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.

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

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

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.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

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.

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

People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve.

I can encourage my daughter to love her body, but what really matters are the observations she makes about my relationship with my own body.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

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

We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.

I would never say I was an icon, but so many people have said I am, so I suppose I am. I mean, I can’t not be what everyone says I am. But I don’t feel like an icon.

The sexiest thing that a woman can do, wear, and say all fall under one word to me: subtlety. To be subtle in the things that she does and the things she says and the things she wears – I appreciate the details.

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?

A fool is wise in his eyes.

If you’re treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they’re real for you whether they’re real or not.

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.

I definitely don’t plead guilty to being a heartthrob.

Whatever role I play is a positive role; it’s a strong role. Never negative.