Toni Cade Bambara Quotes

Do we dare be ourselves? That is the question that counts.

Authenticity is very important - be true to one's self.

I don't think it's about entertainment. I think it's about being ourselves.

One should never write down or up to people, but out of yourself.

Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self.

You can't respect yourself if you're afraid to be who you are.

It is not easy to be sure that being yourself is worth the trouble, but we do know it is our sacred duty.

I never really did abandon my true self. It's not like I invented this imaginary person and started to be her.

Before, I had an idea of what I thought I needed to be, and I'm realizing more and more that being yourself is the best thing.

I'm trying to know who I am and be honest about it.

I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins.

I’ve tried being other people and myself suits me the best.

People ask me all the time, "What are your influences? Are you trying to do Beckett?" It's like, "No, I'm trying to do me." Whatever that is. I don't know what that is, but that's the basis. I'm trying to be true and I'm trying to be honest.

I guess what I know now that I definitely didn't know as a child, is that being truest to yourself is the greatest weapon in the war to achieve. That sounds really negative, but in conquering or achieving something. I think, as a child, I thought I had to be somebody else.

Be who you are, not who the world wants you to be.

Please, please, PLEASE be yourself. If you catch yourself not, take a step back.

She used to say 'You can be whoever you want, even yourself'.... Yeah, I show up knowin exactly who I was and never leave as myself

Having grown up so familiar with creating a pleasing facade, I now end up compelled to reveal things inside and say, 'Okay, now you really see me. Do you still love me?' And then it's never enough; it always has to be total self-revelation.

Life would be so much harder if I had to lie about who I was.

Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.

Always be yourself. At the end of the day, that's all you've really got; when you strip everything down, that's all you've got, so always be yourself.

Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.

What we must try to be, of course, is ourselves and wholeheartedly. We must find out what we really are and what we really want.

Everybody has their own way of tapping into their realness.

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.