Baz Luhrmann Quotes

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turn into confident ducks.

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems.

When you really understand who you are, it enables you to fight and believe.

My confidence comes from the realisation that, actually, the best you can be is you, learning to accept who I was, what I wanted, and that I was more than my body.

I felt more comfortable playing other people than being myself, when I was a kid. And then, the tables turned. Through my performances, I've become more comfortable with who I am, and then I just bring more of myself into the people that I play.

Have the pride of the brown girl and know that you'll figure out your own beauty in time.

I have watched lives change. I have seen women gain confidence.

What he showed me was not what I had to get, but what I already have. I am just myself, and who I am is a lot.

I've realized the person that I've always been and this gift that I've always had just had to be brought to light. It surprised me the most that being more who I am and not who I thought I had to be would make me successful.

In the beginning, I was worried there are too many shots of me as a boy out there. Now I'm at a point where I know my past doesn't make me any less of a woman today. I can be proud of it. I don't have to bury it.

It's common for people to start questioning themselves. As a female, I'm going to offer the advice I gave myself: You look at your strengths, you look at your goals, and accept that you are who you are. Be true to that.

I think that my whole journey had been getting to the place where I can accept myself for who I am, to be the woman that I'm meant to be, but you have to get there first.

This journey from non-dancer to dancer has given me a lot of self-confidence and inner strength. I feel like a different person.

I know who I am. I'm proud of my journey.

There is a beauty and a special quality in being what I am. I know it, and I've learned how to use it.

All I needed was the courage to be me. That courage took a lifetime to develop.

I was bullied a lot, being a kid, so I feel like I'm standing out because I realize who I really am.

When I went out to America, and someone wanted to sign me and invest in me, that was a big moment because, all my life, people have been trying to tell me to be different to what I was.

As they advanced (towards the fountain) one after another of Bastian's Fastastican gifts fell away from him. The strong, handsome, fearless hero became the small, fat, timid boy. (...) But then he jumped into the crystal-clear water... He drank till his thrist was quenched. And joy filled him from head to foot, the joy of living and the joy of being himself. He was new born. And the best part of it was that he was now the very person he wanted to be. If he had been free to choose, he would have chosen to be no one else.

It took a while to grow the confidence to say, 'This is who I am, take it or leave it.'

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.

I wasn't born a redhead, but I was born to be a redhead.

I have been a woman for 46 years and I only recently realized I can't change it and I like it.

I'm one Pia Zadora, the same way all the time. That's why I'm happy. It took me a long time to get to the point where could be myself all the time.

Man shall find his anchorage in self-recognition.