John Trudell Quotes

In every role, a part of me gets to come out.

I find myself both as man and as myself something more determined and distinctive, at pitch, more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.

I have in my life concentrated more on self-expression than self-denial.

To me, the most interesting part of 'True Blood' is that the entire crux of the show is based on identity and finding your true identity.

You have to be someone.

I needed freedom to really express myself. That's really what Justified is about.

I've always been interested in how fast-moving our identity is and that I've never been able to pin down who I truly am. That inspires me to write, because I feel like that cements me a bit, in that I find my identity in being an artist.

I didn't start to work until I realized what it was I had to offer. I stopped imitating performers I admired and started just being myself.

I'm not going to become a costume version or caricature of myself; I like to morph.

I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.

I play myself all the time, on camera and off. What else can I do?

I have a lot of variety within me, and the dream role, I think, is actually a compilation of parts that express different aspects of my persona and personal interests.

I've never been about just trying to do what works. I've been about trying to authentically express how I feel.

'Shortcomings' was me figuring out who I am.

We are living in a world where the individual must learn to command the raw materials of expression. He must not be dependent all the time on the ready-made, the finished product. It's the transferring, the changing of the raw into what is the expression of your own self – the whole joy and satisfaction and frustration of life is built into this.

Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.

I, who have been so many men in vain, want to be one man, myself alone. From out of a whirlwind the voice of God replied: I am not, either. I dreamed the world the way you dreamed your work, my Shakespeare: one of the forms of my dream was you, who, like me, are many and one.

It takes a lot of rehearsing for a man to be himself.

Our problem is to become acquainted with our own selves, letting our personalities loose upon the world for the sheer adventure of their full development and in the positive hope that they may in their own way lift the level of humanity.

The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself you will always be someone else. Become yourself.

It takes time to understand yourself, to go inside yourself and to question yourself and really take yourself to task. That's self-expression.

Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it.

I have never regarded myself as this or that. I have been too busy being myself to bother about regarding myself.

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone.

When we're growing up there are all sorts of people telling us what to do when really what we need is space to work out who to be.