Lou Barlow Quotes

The older I get, the more I understand that the only way to say valuable things is to lose your fear of being correct.

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive - the risk to be alive and express what we really are.

I am an artist... I am here to live out loud.

Sometimes I got scared of being too honest, because being in the public eye, I have always tried to hide my personal life. But I realized that isn't healthy.

We hold back our true feelings and beliefs, whether it's from a sense of being polite or fear of hurting someone's feelings. But what I have seen on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' is that no one benefits from holding back and keeping things bottled up inside. So I pride myself on speaking my mind and not being afraid to give honest feedback.

What I've found - and the older I get, the more I understand this and stand behind it - is, my whole life has been an exploration of telling the truth. It's scary to be truthful, and it's scary to reveal yourself, and I'm very attracted to doing things that scare me.

To make music that means something, you kind of have to drop the cool. You have to be prepared and willing to be uncool.

I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to stop talking about myself for five minutes.

I think it's good to be a little more fearless in saying what you feel. In not being scared of the repercussions of that.

What's interesting is to be sexy but not know it. You'll be in a restaurant, and some girls will walk in and you can tell that they really want to be sexy. It's written on their faces because that's all they want to show. There's a fear that one might not look further.

In all the writers I admire, the common detonator is their courage to walk naked.

My greatest achievement is being able to write records that are real snapshots of what's going on in my life. I won't repeat myself for the sake of commerce, or to please other people.

I say whatever I think and whatever is on my mind, and I just hope that it comes out good. I just try to have a lot of fun.

I fear that many a man's good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I'll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

It doesn't bother me to talk about my private life, it doesn't bother me to talk about anything. My life is like a glass of water, transparent.

When I stopped hiding who I am, I started writing hits.

I'm different, and my manner invites questions. I'm never afraid to answer.

An awareness of one's mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.

For a long time I tried to manage an honesty and openness about my personal life because I'm human and I'm normal - well, semi-normal.

I suppose my life has always been about pleasing people, making sure they're all right, doing the right thing. Then, suddenly, you have to face up to what you want and be honest about it.

I have fun with it and I am honest and open about the way I lead my life and don't mislead anyone. I've had the time of my life and thank God for that, it would be such a waste otherwise.

When we are honest - that's my saying - if we are honest then we will reveal ourselves. But we do not have to make an effort to be individualistic, different from others.

I'm all about showing people that I'm a little messed up, I have a lot of the same problems you have. By exposing myself and putting myself out there, people can relate to me and my act won't grow stale. I mean, nobody wants to hear a comedian say, 'Life is great.'

I wish that I did the things that I really believe in, because when I do, my life goes much smoother.