Laura Nyro Quotes

I've never, ever labeled myself.

Some people want to define themselves, and they should, as it's part of their identity. For me personally, I've never really had a label for myself.

We all name ourselves. We call ourselves artists. Nobody asks us. Nobody says you are or you aren't.

Why do people want to know exactly who I am? Am I a poet? Am I this or that? I've always made people wary. First they called me a rock poet. Then I was a poet that dabbled in rock. Then I was a rock person who dabbled in art.

I just don't want to give anybody a reason to label me as something I'm not.

I did get a reputation for being choosy and not very easy to be approached, and none of that is true. It is not that I am not approachable, it is just that I am trying to find myself and establish who I am as an artist.

I can't speak for everybody, I think, for me, I will not be defined by the lyrics of my song. I am a man who does music. It's like clothes don't make the man, the man makes the clothes. It's, it's like that song don't make me, I make the song.

My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that's helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison's "Beloved" where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don't particularly belong.

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself.

Never categorize yourself, society does that to you, don't do it to yourself.

I don't like to be labeled, to be anything. I've made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it's counter-productive.

I must be very clear in one thing... Being a pageant girl is not who I am or what defines me.

My videos represent the artist in me very well, but not the kind of woman I am.

Defining yourself by your taste is easier than defining yourself by any genuine stance on something.

You call yourself what you want to call yourself.

I am what I do, and that's partly why I don't want to give up singing. But when I can't sing well, I will.

I've tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

I don't think of myself as a leader. I am, but I don't think of myself that way. I'm not trying to belittle what I do, but I think of myself as a dancer first. I'll always be a dancer.

Being an artist means ceasing to take seriously that very serious person we are when we are not an artist.

I try not to define myself. Other people are going to do that for you anyway.

I was more than just a moody artist.

I don't like labels. I don't understand the need for them. When you define yourself a certain way, people have expectations.

Acting is what I do. It's not what I solely define myself as.

If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.

I dislike when people try to pigeonhole me, when all I want is to do good work.