Mark Helprin Quotes

It doesn't surprise me that people can't see beyond my image. It's amazing, but I can understand it. That's what image is for. But it's never a problem for me. It's only a problem for them. I don't really care. I do what I want regardless.

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

The way I'm portrayed on the Internet is partly my doing, but it's partly the people that are presenting it so, you know, people come to know this strange version of a human. It can be pretty weird because people think I'm digging through dumpsters and smell like crap all the time.

There's a discrepancy between what you think you are and what other people think you are.

To be honest, my life is not really as way-out and myth-loaded as people like to portray it.

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

When I read about myself in the media, even I don't recognize me. The myth of Kevin Mitnick is much more interesting than the reality of Kevin Mitnick. If they told the reality, no one would care.

No one really knows me. People think they know me.

It's important that people understand who I am and where I come from and not just have it shaped by purely political discourse.

I don't think I'm portrayed in the media the way I really am - but then who is?

My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn't matter as much as how I would be perceived.

I'm convinced that if we don't define ourselves, other people will do it for us, and inaccurately.

Whatever labels are being pinned on me have nothing to do with me.

There are a lot of people who don't know me and what I am all about.

I'm not ashamed of my social media following, my Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot, or the tough time I had in my LPGA debut, but these small facets of my life are easily manipulated by the Internet to get views, and they don't define me as a person.

I never said, I am just a beauty queen or just an actress.

No one really has any idea about me. To me, what I give you is what happens onscreen, and past that, anything you're coming up with in your own head, you're creating in your own mind.

People have referred to me as 'innocent', which makes me feel disingenuous.

I think what happens is, people do just want to see you as a glamour doll that's put up on screen, but I guess it's how you see yourself.

I had such a reputation, and it was sad because I felt like it so didn't represent who I really was.

I don't like it when they [media critics] see me as this little person who doesn't know what to do with herself -- like I have no idea what I want, like I'm just a puppet ... That's demeaning to me, because that ain't how it is, and it never was.

What we know about who we are comes from stories. It's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.

...that I alone hold the definition of what I am.

I couldn't imagine someone playing me or writing a book about who I am. Although I let people write articles and try and express who I am, and it blows up wildly in my face.

I don't want to be on the cover of Playboy or Vogue.