William Butler Yeats Quotes

How truly does this journal contain my real and undisguised thoughts--I always write it according to the humour I am in, and if astranger was to think it worth reading, how capricious--insolent & whimsical I must appear!--one moment flighty and half mad,--the next sad and melancholy. No matter! Its truth and simplicity are its sole recommendations.

The diary will really try and tell people who you are and what you were. The alternative is writing nothing, or creating a totally lifeless, as it is leafless, garden.

It's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere.

I just sing what I feel in my heart. I ain't trying to prove nothing, and I don't think I ever did.

When you say was it you being silly or letting yourself go, or is it you being intense? I would say it was me being me. I would say that me being me is probably yes to all of that. So having fun, playing with passion, it matters to me, competitive.

Write a true, careless, slovenly impulsive, honest diary every day of your life.

Looking silly can be ver powerful. People who are committing and taking risks become the king and queen of my prom. People are their most beautiful when they are laughing, crying, dancing, playing, telling the truth, and being chased in a fun way.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

Monologue is the most honest way to represent human beings.

The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.

I sit in my new room and write everything down. My heart never stops talking.

Whatever it is that I feel, I express it! I am free with my joy, my laughter, my pleasure, my pain, and I am blessed in that way as an actress that I can access those feelings within myself and not be ashamed to show whatever that is that's appropriate for the character.

An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.

When you eliminate vanity from an art form, and I would think that this would be any art form, what is left is an opportunity to be incredibly naked and truthful.

I want to see what I look like when I'm old - I'm curious where that's going to take me.

I've always used poetry to explain myself to myself. These things just sat in my psyche and then came out.

In my 20s I was such a serious, boring-looking person. I would never do my nails. I never even danced. But I was taught by the women. They had gone through hell, but they would dance and sing. I came to realise I can't argue for a happy world if I am not happy myself.

No lie ever reaches old age.

Part of the very impulse of writing for me is actually wanting to get away from myself.

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

France was very opposite of the show-business experience I'd been living; I was anonymous and alone. I wore no makeup, wore the same clothes every day. And I wrote and wrote and wrote.

I realized that I had to be honest about where I was, where I was coming from, and what I was trying to do.

When I sing, I think mostly about the music. But I know that, through singing, my body shows everything that I am. I am a very passionate man and I suffer a lot and have a lot of joy also. In my opinion, it is very important for me to find this stimulus and motivation for singing.

I try to say something about the human condition whenever I can when I'm lucky.

My lyrics come from my experiences growing up in life, trying to find out and express who I am. That's basically it. I'm not trying to be a prophet or anything like that. I'm just reflecting on life.