Germaine de Staël Quotes

Basically, I think that there are some characters that you can just allow the truth of your character as a human being in your real life to come through.

People will always show their true selves in the end.

The truth is, I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves.

The fact is that all of us have only one personality, and we wring it out like a dishtowel. You are what you are.

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.

We neither get better or worse as we get older, but more like ourselves.

You write who you are somehow. Even if you try to not to. You can't help but write who you are. I'm just not a very cynical person. I believe in the humanity of people, whether it is just the guys in 'The Full Monty' or Aron Ralston.

I've seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are.

Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.

In some ways it's taken me decades to come clean and make honest work - and still to this day, sometimes I find myself wanting to hide behind my work and deny the more biographical aspects.

I think a life of a human being is not something you can explain in a few interview questions. The stuff you do in the media is sometimes a great reflection and sometimes not a great reflection of who you are as a person.

I was very candid in my book because I want people to know the truth... and that people can change for the better.

The idea of a memoir is to tell the truth. I know that often the truth hurts, but a lie hurts even more.

Nothing I do is didactic. I just want to hold up a mirror and say, 'This is who we are.'

Men are always sincere. They change sincerities, that's all.

Most portraits are lies. People are rarely what they appear to be, especially in front of a camera. You might know me your entire lifetime and never reveal yourself to me. To interpret wrinkles as character is insult not insight.

When you don't show up as who you are, people fall in love with who you're not. Then when they find out who you are, that's when they leave.

So I always think it's important to allow someone to reveal themself. If you notice something about someone that you like, it could really tell you something about who they are during a time of trial. The truth will come out.

There's the dual challenge of wanting to speak from an authentic place, and then being able to be honest about it. Even in the most mannered art, I think that's what people value, is a voice that comes from a real place.

There's no reason to change what you are, but if you're not being you, then you need to acknowledge that.

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

The maxims of men reveal their characters.

Ask me not what I have, but what I am.

You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.