Gore Vidal Quotes

Whether at work, at home or in public, we have been trained to believe that who we are at the core of our being is often unacceptable. As a result, we work diligently to live up to - and sometimes down to - what others have made us out to be, whether or not it is an accurate reflection of who we are.

People have been so busy relating to how I look, it's a miracle I didn't become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm.

And even though people like to furrow their brow like they suspect you're not being honest about yourself, the truth is that they worry that you're not serving their idea of you.

A woman doesn't care if she hasn't a stomach, provided she looks as if she hasn't.

It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

There's more to me than fashion. I just don't want to be seen as fashion.

I was lucky not to have been born pretty.

With women, the way they look... it's the core of their self-esteem.

I don't think what I look like is relevant.

I just feel like growing up in Los Angeles, you learn, 'Well you're never gonna be the prettiest girl in the room, so just don't even try.' I mean, I care about being pretty, but it's not my most valued thing.

It always amazed me that people believed I was this beautiful object.

Everyone wants to look their best, everyone has dreams of wanting to look like something else. But we are who we are.

We think of ourselves as our titles or our jobs or our position in a family. We depend on being praised by others. But something happens when that praise is undermined.

I don't see myself as beautiful, because I can see a lot of flaws. People have really odd opinions. They tell me I'm skinny, as if that's supposed to make me happy.

No-one has ever called me a cool dude. I'm somewhere between geek and normal.

Women always want to be what they're not: If you're the pretty girl, you want to be the quirky girl. If you're the smart girl, you want to be the pretty girl.

I'm still figuring out why people would want to look at me. Maybe it's generic beauty, but it's weird to be valued for something I was born with.

Fame is a weird one. You need to distance yourself from it. People see a value in you that you don't see yourself.

If you take it as a compliment that you don't look your age, then you're really shooting yourself in the foot.

I was never a worker. And that's not even being arrogant. I was just never a worker.

I am not a beauty queen, and I was not the popular girl in high school.

I'd wear nice clothes and brush my teeth more often if I cared about what people thought.

I don't feel like I look like the other perfect little pop singers. I think I'm changing what people think is sexy.

I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than how others saw me.

So many people dislike themselves so thoroughly that they never see any reproduction of themselves that suits. None of us is born with the right face. It’s a tough job being a portrait photographer.