I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn’t.

Sometimes a nickname is used instead of the real name. But a nickname may offend either the one named or the parents who gave the name.

You know, when you don’t go on TV and talk about how many women you sleep with, some people in Hollywood, that are supposedly ‚in the know,‘ start whispering that you’re gay. If I were gay, I wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it, but I’m not.

You can use your real identity, or you can use phone numbers for something like WhatsApp, and pseudonyms for something like Instagram. But in any of those you’re not just sharing and consuming content, you are also building relationships with people and building an understanding of people.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.

You don’t have to be like everybody else or do things like everybody else. God created you to be a unique individual, and He wants you to be free to be who He made you to be.

I’m proud of ‚Stop Making Sense,‘ but it’s a little bit of an albatross; I can’t compete with it, but I can’t ignore it either.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

All of us, no matter how we look born into this world, feel something like the Hunchback. It doesn’t matter if you have a beautiful face or not.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

I think everybody deserves an equal amount of appreciation whether how old they are, but I mean, I’m cool with the praise. I’m good.

Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.

We cannot live being obsessed with what other people think about us. It’s impossible to live like that. Not even God managed to please the entire world.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

I’m the greatest thing that ever lived! I’m the king of the world! I’m a bad man. I’m the prettiest thing that ever lived.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

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

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.

Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.

For a long time, I thought I was ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults that were not intended.

I’m not lesbian; I’m not bisexual; I’m not straight. I’m just curious.

I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.

What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

In heaven an angel is nobody in particular.

My philosophy is it’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.

Her body calculated to a millimeter to suggest a bud yet guarantee a flower.

I was never particularly fond of my voice.

Self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.

I’m Mickey Mouse. They don’t know who’s inside the suit.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

I am really proud that I am one of the artists that has the opportunity to be on magazine covers and to be in the movies.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‚one size fits all‘ standard for happiness.

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.

What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.

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.

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.

I don’t see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear ‚pop,‘ you’re like, ‚Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,‘ and I feel like, ‚Uh-uh. That’s not me.‘

I married my best friend that happens to be a girl.

Homophobia is real in this country.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

Right now, when we’re hearing so much disturbing and hateful rhetoric, it is so important to remember that our diversity has been – and will always be – our greatest source of strength and pride here in the United States.

I like my body when it is with your body. It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more.

If you change and adapt your persona, you are seen as inauthentic; if you stay the angry young man, you fade from attention or seem tiresome.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.

I had one incident where my daughter said that a girl asked if she was a brown person. I said, ‚We’re black. You have black people, white people, Chinese people, Hispanic people; we’re all brought up differently.‘

Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

Being seventy is not a sin.