Tracy McGrady Quotes

I think I hid my singing talent from a lot of my friends at school because I didn't want to alienate anyone. If everyone was singing along in the car to a Madonna song, I didn't join in because when we're younger we're afraid of sticking out or showing off, when in fact we should own those things that make us really unique.

Most men are petrified of standing out in any way or being thought superficial.

The reason most people don't express their individuality and actually deny it, is not fear of what prime ministers think of us or the head of the federal reserve, It's what their families and their friends down at the bar are going to think of them.

In our society, no one dares to be themselves.

We shouldn't censor ourselves based on the weak idea of "looking cool." It's such a waste of potential awesomeness.

Partly, I'm worried that no one is saying anything because they are afraid of being seen as politically correct.

I'm afraid when too many people know too much about you, it actually makes us all a lot more boring because you're afraid to express yourself.

I think guilt is the biggest problem in America, people are always feeling guilty about being themselves. You can't say what you want because it's not politically correct. You can't look like you want because you, the people at the office aren't going to like you and so on.

There's a constant anxiety that comes from having an innate sense of self, yet existing within a homogenised, aspirational culture.

Even if we're not doing anything wrong, there are certain things we want to do that we don't think can withstand the scrutinizing eye of other people. And those are often the most important things that we do. The things we do when other people are watching are things that are conformist, obedient, normal, and unnotable.

People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind.

I am different than some people would like me to be. I just don't buy into that the personal can be political.

You get to an age where you get tired of hiding behind whatever people think is correct.

I want to be able to wake up and feel like, 'Eh, I feel like wearing this!' Or talking to that person. It's so much more work to have to stay in that box to fit in, 'Mean Girls' style.

I think a lot of us often don't express how we really feel because we're afraid of what others might think of us. So we secretly admire people who could care less. They do things that we don't allow ourselves to do.

There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behaviour and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity.

Everyone is being told by society to talk this way, to dress that way, to be this person or to be that person, and it's so important to just maintain a sense of self.

It isn't till now, in the American Century, as we have recklessly dubbed it, that tribal pressures toward conformity have been brought to bear so ruthlessly upon men and women seeking to work creatively.

There was so much pressure to fit in, I tried to force myself to be like everyone else. The last thing any teen wants is to be 'uncool.'

I like the freedom America has. In Japan people tend to think too much about others' opinions and how to be like everybody else but to Americans it seems more important to be who you are and find your own way.

You can filter certain stuff - it depends what artist you are - but you're never going to be true to yourself if you're worried about what other people think.

People are afraid to be themselves because people are afraid to be recorded. Everything is being recorded, and everyone is so sensitive. You say something; a section of people will be offended. It's so annoying; you got to be completely censored.

People sometimes are afraid to be who they are because of other people's ideals.

A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity.

Apparently God makes us all different. Some of us are happy to respond to His individual touch on our lives by remaining individuals, and others of us are intimidated or frightened into trying to become like each other so that we have company, so that we don't feel so lonely.