Michel Foucault Quotes

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.

This desire to fashion, to shape, a self and a life has all but gone from a contemporary culture whose emphasis, paradoxically enough, is so much on self.

Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible. It requires training as well as magic.

Selfness is an essential fact of life. The thought of nonselfness, precise sameness is terrifying.

The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.

Did I express my personality? I think that's quite unimportant because it's not people's selves but what they have to say about life that's important.

Figure out who you are separate from your family, and the man or woman you're in a relationship with. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that's the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self because with that, you can do anything else.

I think what I have done is claimed the space and pushed it forward as much as I can in relationship to who I am and how I live my life.

I think people kind of come in who they are, and it sort of doesn't even matter who their parents are - it can affect you a little bit, and you can be guided and shaped.

Even though I take care of the mom stuff, I've maintained my own individuality with my own projects, and I think our girls see that I'm not just the mom or the wife.

Before tomorrow, make a list of your traits. Make YOUR list - who you are and why. Then ask yourself this question: where did it come from? Are you the way you are because it is what you want... or what they want? Are you a product of your imagination or someone else's? Think about it.

You are both a work of art and an artist at work.

Concepts vs. self-actualization. - Instead of dedicating your life to actualize a concept of what you should be like, ACTUALIZE YOURSELF. The process of maturing does not mean to become a captive of conceptualization. It is to come to the realization of what lies in our innermost selves.

You cannot borrow half of who you are from someone else, yet people try to do it all of the time, they just call it a relationship!

You cannot live to please everyone else. You have to edify, educate and fulfill your own dreams and destiny, and hope that whatever your art is that you're putting out there, if it's received, great, I respect you for receiving it. If it's not received, great, I respect you for not.

People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.

Carving out an identity for yourself is important so I'm trying to do that as well.

The only thing I want to be defined by is my music and personality.

The making of a whole person and the creation of true individuals can only happen by singing and dancing and making art.

I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint.

Making your life is ultimately an extraordinarily creative endeavor.

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

Like most modern Americans, I assume individuality is not only a fundamental value, but a goal in life, an art form.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.

One of the things my parents taught me, and I'll always be grateful as a gift, is to not ever let anybody else define me; that for me to define myself. and I think that helped me a lot in assuming a leadership position.