What people see on court is another side of me; it’s not me.

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.‘

The difficult thing is that vulnerability is the first thing I look for in you and the last thing I’m willing to show you. In you, it’s courage and daring. In me, it’s weakness.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.

The fact is, with every friendship you make, and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad, you’re actually helping to make America stronger.

I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

I didn’t try to copy my dad or fit into the pressure or the mold that everybody tried to make me fit into.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

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.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

I’ve always been – you know, my personality is motivating and encouraging. And so I’m just being who God made me to be.

The work is the work. The work is not me.

I think that, ah, I’m a very goofy sort of person in many ways.

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.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

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

There are certain nights you and your image just aren’t in the same bed.

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him.

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

I would impress upon your minds the fact that if you want to do a man justice, you should believe what a man says himself rather than what people say he says.

No man was ever great by imitation.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

I like someone who is a little crazy but coming from a good place. I think scars are sexy because it means you made a mistake that led to a mess.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.

Everywhere I go, the kids call me ‚the book lady.‘ The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the ‚book lady‘ title. It makes me feel more like a legitimate person, not just a singer or an entertainer. But it makes me feel like I’ve done something good with my life and with my success.

The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it’s beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one.

In real life, I’m a really smiley person. I smile when I talk and I laugh.

I’m totally myself.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

Seeing is not always believing.

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

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

I saw a picture of myself when I came out of the hospital. I didn’t recognize myself.

I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories – and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

I change during the course of a day. I wake and I’m one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I’m somebody else.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986. I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.

Nobody has ever convinced me that race is real.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name.

Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values and your personal style.