Dee Rees Quotes

People ask me all the time, "What are your influences? Are you trying to do Beckett?" It's like, "No, I'm trying to do me." Whatever that is. I don't know what that is, but that's the basis. I'm trying to be true and I'm trying to be honest.

I like to be myself, and I don't pretend. For instance, I don't dress up for occasions; I am what I am.

If you want your rock stars that are completely 100 percent serious about themselves and you want them to pretend like they're 25, I'm probably not the guy for that. But if you want to come and say, 'Hey, you know that guy right there, he's just being himself. I kind of like him for that,' you know, then that's me.

The thing about Sheeran is that he is an incredibly real artist and songwriter. He is not trying to be anybody else other than himself.

Be you. If people like it, great. My music is honest, and it comes from the heart. I have never done anything to become famous.

No matter what I put out, no matter what genre - because I feel like I'm going to experiment with everything - I hope people will see that it's true to me, that it's honest, and nobody ever thinks that I'm inauthentic.

What's the point of rap if you can't be yourself, huh?

What is originality? It is being one's self, and reporting accurately what we see and are.

You're supposed to be who you are. You're supposed to make music that is true to you.

I try to be me to the utmost.

I certainly want people to like my writing, but I know that if I write with the intention of trying to please people, the writing will not be good because it will not be authentic. So, ironically, I have to be willing to write something strange or unlovable in order to write anything truly good.

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.

I would say trust your own judgment and develop your own style that is true in your heart and don't be deterred from that. Just develop that something that's unique to you that you feel you can give. Be true to yourself, trust your own judgment; that's all.

One should never write down or up to people, but out of yourself.

But to me, to be original is to be yourself.

I've never tried to be something I'm not.

You have to be who you are when you do music.

The great man who gives a true transcript of his mind fascinates and instructs. Most writers suppress individuality. They wish to please the public.

Don't imitate. Write what you know about, that has to be your goal.

I am who I am and I say what I think. I'm not putting a face on for the record.

It has been a motto of mine my whole life - just be yourself.

I can't think of anything worse, really, than to try to live up to someone else's expectations of what you should be. You don't make art by consensus.

I think the most important thing is to be yourself and be genuine and don't try to tell anybody else's story but your own. And if it comes from a genuine place, I think people can tell, and if it doesn't, I think people can tell, and I think that eventually it shows.

I don't like to hold back. Especially with who I am and what I do, it's all me. Everything's my name; it's what I do. It's how I feel. It's what I think.

If you write, write about what you do and who you are, and you can't be wrong. Don't lie about anything. You are very similar to everybody else in the world. You love, you hate, you have friends, you have enemies. Be who you are.