Regina Spektor Quotes

Stand up for yourself and fight for your right to be the artist that you want to be. There's plenty of pressure from outside; people tell you how to dress and how to sing or what to sing, but I always felt like if I'm going to fail or succeed, I want to do it on my own terms.

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.

I was kind of raised with the suggestion that I had a duty to do; that life was real, life was earnest. And I hated that, actually. I needed to be liberated, to be told that I could live the life that I wanted to live; that I didn't need a job, or to be shouted at; that I could be myself; that I could be happy.

I try to please myself. I don't try to anticipate what people want to see.

I don't care what other people think any more about me writing my own parts.

Just in general, no matter what you're doing, be true to yourself. Never let anyone else dictate how you live your life.

I've always rooted on kids that do what they want to do and are being who they want to be.

I construct myself and do things how I want to do them, because your artistry is a very precious thing - it's ultimately your whole life if you want it to be.

I think everyone should be their own individualized person.

I'm my own person, and I think that's what everyone wants because it's difficult to be somebody else.

I've always loved what I do and I've always done what I wanted to do... in this business you have got to be yourself.

I am trying to be true to the work that I want to do and be allowed to make the choices that I want to make.

I don't necessarily think the way people do, but that's not my problem. My problem is not to reinforce or destroy any ideas anyone might have about me, how I do what I do, what my intentions are, the way that I do it. My only job, as far as I can see, is to do the music that I want to do.

I do what I do. I live my life the way I've been living it.

Either I choose to behave or live a life of someone else, or I choose to be myself and live the life the way I want.

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.

It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what's good enough and start creating art that matters.

I'm certainly not who people think I am. I always do whatever I want to do, and my films are personal to me.

My image is me. I talk for myself. I didn't become this person others wanted me to be.

I wanted to be myself. Only myself.

I don't know what it's like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy. I don't speak for such huge and diverse groups. What I've tried to do, what I've been fortunate to do, is to live my live and create my life as I've wanted to create it.

'St. Trinian's' is probably taking it to the extreme, but in essence it's saying, 'If you be yourself, you can do whatever you want,' and it's sort of a fun message.

Write what you think is good, is the whole of the law.

No one should part with their individuality and become that of another.

My parents were quite liberal with us, always encouraging us to be our own person and be creative.