Djuna Barnes Quotes

Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.

What is originality? It is being one's self, and reporting accurately what we see and are.

I do not just write, I write what I am. If there is a secret, perhaps that is it.

I always write what feels really true and honest and me.

When we are honest - that's my saying - if we are honest then we will reveal ourselves. But we do not have to make an effort to be individualistic, different from others.

Yeah, it's nice to look up to people, but the more you try to be somebody else, the less you are of yourself.

If there's one theme in all my work, it's about authenticity and self-expression. It's the idea that some things are, in some real sense, really you - or express what you and others aren't.

If you write, write about what you do and who you are, and you can't be wrong. Don't lie about anything. You are very similar to everybody else in the world. You love, you hate, you have friends, you have enemies. Be who you are.

I want to portray myself as myself.

Be stupid, be dumb, be funny, if that's who you are. Don't try to be someone that society wants you to be; that's stupid. So be yourself.

When you're growing up, the most important thing is to try to not change yourself too much. Be you, because everyone else is taken.

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

I want to be unique and original and truthful.

Your individuality is the most valuable thing you have.

Born Originals, how comes it to pass that we die Copies?

I always say that you are who you are and you can't hide it.

First of all, be what you are.

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.

If you keep changing for every person who tells you to, then who's going to be left? Why get the success and be somebody else?

The greatest fear people have is that of being themselves. They want to be 50 Cent or someone else. They do what everyone else does even if it doesn’t fit where and who they are. But you get nowhere that way; your energy is weak and no one pays attention to you. You’re running away from the one thing that you own – what makes you different. I lost that fear. And once I felt the power that I had by showing the world I didn’t care about being like other people, I could never go back.

There is truth in the high opinion that in so far as a man conforms, he ceases to exist.

Every form has its own meaning. Every man creates his meaning and form and goal. Why is it so important - what others have done? Why does it become sacred by the mere fact of not being your own? Why is anyone and everyone right - so long as it's not yourself? Why does the number of those others take the place of truth? Why is truth made a mere matter of arithmetic - and only of addition at that? Why is everything twisted out of all sense to fit everything else? There must be some reason. I don't know. I've never known it. I'd like to understand.

I haven't been trying to be anything other than myself.

Good or bad, do it as you. Too many lies and there's no truth to go back to.