Karen Abbott Quotes

I might have been born just plain white trash / but Fancy was my name.

I've never considered myself cool, and I don't think I ever will be. Honestly, it's better that way. It's much less pressure.

In a way, you kind of get caught up in whatever image of yourself you think is out there.

Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

At some point, the pride has to be a part of the whole day-to-day oeuvre. It's part of who you are and doesn't need to be discussed anymore.

Your name is a funny thing. It stands for what you're about, and everything I do is really about pride.

But people who do not know me are surprised to see me as a real person I guess.

There's a difference between the parts that I play and who I am and who people think I am. There's quite a big discrepancy sometimes between those things.

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

I don't think I'm portrayed in the media the way I really am - but then who is?

The reason it was so bruising when someone said I was from a rich family is that, like many of us, I'm deeply invested - probably overly so - in the myth of my own self-creation. I like to believe that I got where I am, such as it is, by working hard and charting my own course.

My name is Ella; that's who I am at school, hanging out with friends, while I'm doing homework. But when I'm up on stage, 'Lorde' is a character.

Certainly I was relatively a refined person. No way a tramp.

I never have really become accustomed to the 'John.' Nobody ever really calls me John... I've always been Duke or Marion or John Wayne. It's a name that goes well together, and it's like one word - John Wayne.

People assume that I'm an aristocrat, but I don't really feel part of any class.

A lot of people think I'm going to be like someone who's stepped out of one of his own cartoons. And maybe I am. But I sure have a hard time analyzing it.

A lot of people don't think I'm English. I've lived in France, and people do think I'm French, but I don't see myself as having a glamorous look.

I'm very proud that on my passport it says: 'broadcaster,' and that's what I see myself as.

Whenever I see a mirror, I just look at myself, or when I see my own reflection, I quickly take a look; I won't lie about that. But when I am in front of the camera, it's just the character, not me.

I always consider myself a Hyderabadi; my roots are here.

My desire to be an actor or a model precedes my identity.

I actually don't consider myself that private. I know that's how I've been characterized. That's OK.

People like to define you through what they've seen you do. There are aspects of my personality, I guess, that come through on-screen, but I don't sit around thinking, 'I've been a bumbling suitor all my life.'

You might see someone with dreadlocks and label them a hippie in your head, but that doesn't mean they think of themselves that way. A lot of people look at me and see I have a beard and shaggy hair, and think I'm a hippie. I'm not a hippie, and I'm not not a hippie. I don't know what the f**k I am.

I'm not going to try and change how people perceive me. I think it's important to be a contradiction. People are contradictions; everyone has contradictions. So I don't expect anyone to look at me differently.