Kathryn Harrison Quotes

Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.

(M)aybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

You can hide so much behind theatrics, and I don't need to do that any more.

I decided at 15 that I didn't want to be one of those artists that gets up and sings love songs they don't mean. I decided that I was going to be me to the fullest extent, that my songs were going to reflect relationships I've had, things I've been through, and even the stuff I'm embarrassed about.

Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure.

Earlier on in my career I felt that I had to hide behind a lot of different masks, and showboat ways of performing. Now, that's a lie. The less I have to hide, the less I have to act.

We are all just little dolls of ourselves. Who occasionally pull back the curtains to reveal the real us.

In some ways it's taken me decades to come clean and make honest work - and still to this day, sometimes I find myself wanting to hide behind my work and deny the more biographical aspects.

I always found that the closer I got to who I really am, on stage, the more they responded to it.

I was terrified to be my true self because I felt that it wasn't enough. But I allowed myself to break down those walls.

Being vulnerable is the hardest thing for so many people, including myself, but it's also the most satisfying thing.

How much more can you give? Other than, literally, open-heart surgery onstage? Not much. But the only cure you have right now is the honesty of going, this is who you are. I know who I am.

I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins.

Do we dare be ourselves? That is the question that counts.

The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is

That’s what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is....Most people love you for who you pretend to be....To keep their love, you keep pretending - performing. You get to love your pretense...It’s true, we’re locked in an image, an act...

Get naked with your truth, offering the world your greatest gift: your authentic self.

Unless I am what I am and feel what I feel - as hard as I can and as honestly and truly as I can - then I am nothing. Let me feel guilty ... don't try to educate me ... don't protect me.

That's quite a difficult thing in life, to be who you are. And when you are doing interviews, you kind of feel this need to say something interesting.

The only problems I've ever had with being honest is telling people how I feel about them or saying how I feel about other people.

Although I know it's unfair I reveal myself one mask at a time.

It is when I am working that the real me comes out - that is when I am the most real and honest.

I don't think it's about entertainment. I think it's about being ourselves.

Being yourself is one of the hardest things because it's scary. You always wonder whether you'll be accepted for who you really are. I decided to call my record 'Inside Out' because that's my motto about life. I don't think you ever succeed at trying to be anyone else but who you truly are.