Tao Lin Quotes

It seems that different people have an idea of what I am, and what I should be. And then there's me.

Style comes from knowing who you are and who you want to be in the world; it does not come from wanting to be somebody else, or wanting to be thinner, shorter, taller, prettier.

I think the fact that I am gay is about the 47th most interesting thing about me.

I don't necessarily think of myself as a feminist, but I'm a whole person. I'm not just breasts or ass or thighs - I'm a whole being! And it just seems like women aren't necessarily striving to be the whole of themselves.

I've always been very conscious of who I am.

I'm really not sure what people think or expect me to be, but I am surprised when people say, 'You're not supposed to be like that... ' I'm not exactly sure what 'that' is, so I choose to take it as a compliment.

I've never, ever labeled myself.

I try not to brand myself 'weird' any more because it sticks.

When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's difficult to find your own identity.

I love tennis. But even if I become the greatest of all time, I still don't only want to be defined by tennis. I'm my own person. And I want to be remembered as I really am.

I don't think about my look that much, to be honest. It's what I've always known, it's what I've grown up with, and I wouldn't ever want to step too far away from my most authentic self.

My identity will always inform my experience and shape my perception. But I am an unremarkable person.

This is not me, WWE doesn't define who Ashley is.

You gotta know what you are, who you are and how you want to be portrayed.

I think that it doesn't matter if I travel all over the place. I'll always be a normal teenager on the inside. It always depends on how you act yourself, not what happens to you. That's my view of it all.

I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than how others saw me.

I rejected the word humorist for a long time because I thought that it meant you had, like, a cardigan sweater with patches on the elbows, but now I'm old and I do. I grew into that word. I think at heart, all this time, I've been a diarist. I'm not ashamed of it.

I don't really read that much stuff about myself anyways, because I feel as though you then develop this mind-set of just making sure other people would approve of your decisions.

The main thing you can change is how you perceive yourself. Stop looking in the mirror and realize that youre living for yourself, not other people.

If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I am?

A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him...but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.

I don't care what people think of me or for what reason they think of me. I don't feel like I don't know who I am to the degree that I have to change my hair to create a new me.

It's a frightening thing to act on your opinions. You've got to find confidence in yourself, not in what others think of you. I'm still trying to separate how I see myself from how I'm perceived. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

I always introduce myself as an encyclopedia of defects which I do not deny. Why should I? It took me a whole life to build myself as I am.

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.