Kathy Acker Quotes

I think the most important thing for an artist is to not worry about what anybody else thinks. You just have to do what comes from your heart and your being and put it out there-that's true in any of the arts.

All my life, I've had a fear of being told what to say, so I'm not telling people what to think. I'm encouraging them to say what they think.

I want to write without shame or pride or over-compensation in one direction or another. To write freely.

We do this basically for ourselves. People appreciate it, which is cool, but I think they appreciate that we're doing it for ourselves. We're doing it our way, and how people like it is not up to us. We like it.

I can't allow myself to censor myself.

Fox has always allowed us to be ourselves. They've never told us what we can say, what to say, what not to say.

The worst frame of mind to be in is what the fans like or what the fans want, because then you lose the authenticity of who you are as an artist and who you are as a person.

You know how they say, "Find your voice"? That's your voice, in your pajamas. And it doesn't mean that you're going to publish it or print it or people are going to see you in your pajamas. It just means you are going to construct the foundation in your pajamas, in that voice.

I think I'm just doing me, my music, my shows, and my stories.

A lot of people are comfortable labelling you because it's easy. Like, 'He's a rapper. He can only do this. He can only do these types of shows.' I want to do everything. I want to feel comfortable being me.

Whatever I'm writing has seemed to be about something I don't feel I could freely express in my everyday life, and stand-up is a really effective medium for getting people to hear exactly the things and viewpoints that they normally don't want listen to.

I realized that I had things in my head not like what I had been taught - not like what I had seen - shapes and ideas so familiar to me that it hadn't occurred to me to put them down. I decided to stop painting, to put away everything I had done, and to start to say the things that were my own.

Everybody is going to be what they are, and whatever they are, there's not going to be anything to apologize about.

To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.

They tell me what to wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be. Until recently I had given into that pressure, I lost sight of who I was. I listened to opinions of people and I tried to change who I am because I thought others would accept me for it. And I realized I don't know how to be anything but myself.

We are so ruled by what people tell us we must be that we have forgotten who we are.

Harmelody allows everybody to be an individual who does not have to imitate anybody else.

People tried to do a lot of stuff with me early in my career where they tried to shape me into one thing or another. They couldn't just take the chance and go with my vision - which was just my intuition, really.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

The fact is that everyone at the labels wants to do what everyone else is doing. You have to look like her; you have to be like her; you have to sing like her, and no one can express themselves. I look at Rihanna and I am so proud of her. She speaks loudly! You have to stand up and clap. She expresses herself through fashion. She actually can sing. And her songs mean something, even to me, you know?

Too often, I think, children are required to write before they have anything to say. Teach them to think and read and talk without self-repression, and they will write because they cannot help it.

What I know for sure: Often we don't even realize who we're meant to be because we're so busy trying to live out someone else's ideas. But other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.

Holding on to some of your uniqueness is the trick instead of surrendering it at the Academy of Contemporary We're Gonna Make You a Star.

I've always been the audience that I wanted to reach, so I write for myself.

Don't worry about society's conditioning and the labels that are put on you by external forces. Hold onto your true self.