Janine di Giovanni Quotes

I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don't fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.

When I was learning by myself, despite my parents, despite my teachers, despite society, when I was fighting for building my life as a young wire walker at age 16, I didn't have feelings, I had certainties.

If I didn't mould my reality then I'd still be in the ghetto where people like me are supposed to stay. You have to dream your way out of the nightmare.

The people I'm drawn to are sort of self-created. They came from backgrounds where not much was expected of them, necessarily.

I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, and nobody gets out of there. So I'm like, how am I gonna get out of there? Nobody else can. So it took some time. The struggle made me realize I didn't really want to be 'normal' anymore.

Even if I turned myself in, it wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't make me one of them. I knew that when I got my powers, but really I knew it before then. I learned it as a child on my first day of school, on the warm rainy streets of Bangkok, and in college. If you're different you always know it, and you can't fix it even if you want to. What do you do when you find out your heart is the wrong kind? You take what you're given, and be the hero you can be. Hero to your own cold, inverted heart.

I like seeing how people have succeeded when others would have presumed they would have failed, and others just go along with whatever everyone else does.

I think that everyone who does music, and everyone who does art, or everyone who decides at a young age that they're gonna do that, is someone who feels like an outsider. The world is not really set up for that.

Who can't relate to a story of a dreamer who, against all odds, is going to make something of himself that is completely unexpected?

I buck the trend: I eat avocados on a Sunday morning and I'm a homeowner.

I never in my wildest dreams dreamt of being in a position like this, of having a platform like this, where I can really show the world - not just Africa, but the entire world, people in Asia, India, wherever - that your current situation doesn't have to determine your future.

I'm actually quite proud of the fact that we made a success of ourselves in a donkey jacket and DMs, without any thought to sexualising what we were doing.

As a creative, you have to be your truest form. You can't worry about fitting into whatever boxes people want to put you in.

You do not move forward by following convention. You celebrate those who are different, who are not burdened by 'normality.'

I don't really have routines or follow what my coaches tell me or how people want me to be: this stereotypical 'sleep on time and set good examples' person. I don't really know what setting a good example is.

A lot of guys thought I'd bow down to them, but I wasn't like that. I was just trying to play football and do my thing.

I think people have come to know that I am not comfortable in a box, you know, and that I love music.

Even the fact that I labelled myself makes me mad sometimes, because dude, I'm just a free spirit.

To be honest I don't really feel like I'm a part of the industry. I don't get awards because the powers that be don't really like me. I'm not like everyone else, I won't do what everyone else does.

More Than' means refusing to define yourself according to what society dictates, or everyone around you thinks you should do or be.

I don't think there's anything traditional about me.

I never claimed to be a generic artist, period. I never wanted to be a generic artist.

The whole point of Lady Gaga is that anyone can do it. A few years ago she was a nobody. She talks about how it's important for people to know that by sheer force of will they can bring about anything they want in their lives.

We've all been underestimated at times. That's life.

I love the idea of challenging what the standards is.