Chris Rock Quotes

Number one - and I want you to emblaze this on your brain - you only have one chance to make a first impression.

. . . she gave him one of those broad smiles she reserved for strangers, as if she were aware of being able to pass, in their eyes, for an ordinary woman.

Outward appearances mean everything.

I play into the perception of me, but it's not really me.

Acting like the person I'm supposed to be has always been the easiest thing for me.

A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

Everyone has a mirror face that's so different from their natural face. And I think it's interesting, seeing the way people want to be viewed when they're putting themselves together.

My theory about meeting people,' he said,'is that it's better not to make a really good first impression. Because it's all downhill from there. You're always having to live up to that first impression, which was just an illusion.

I don't care if I'm funny. I just want people to believe I'm that guy.

We lie to one another every day, in the sweetest way, often unconsciously. We dress ourselves and compose ourselves in order to present ourselves to one another.

Hip-hop is so much about character and caricature that people just see you as a character. Very rarely are you flesh and bone to people.

A man may not always be what he appears to be, but what he appears to be is always a significant part of what he is.

Keep up appearances; there lies the test. The world will give thee credit for the rest.

Masks are wonderfully paradoxical in this way: while they may hide the physical reality, they can show us how a person wants to be seen.

To others we are not ourselves but performers in their lives cast for a part we do not even know we are playing.

I am fascinated by that notion of people are never as they seem. And that doesn't make them good or bad. It's just we don't ever really show ourselves if we don't have to.

People assume when my hair is long that I am a lot cooler than I actually am. I am not opposed to this misconception, by the way, but it is a misconception.

One goes on with the blithe belief that who you really are is transparent to everybody. Then you realise, with some horror, that in fact it's not. So all you can do is keep muddying the waters a bit.

Everybody has many people inside of them; I think we tend to present the one we feel is most appropriate at first, in order to gain acceptance or achieve what we want. It gets really interesting when this technique fails, and other levels are revealed.

My public persona is badly warped and bears little resemblance to the person those closest to me know.

I think I always resented the fact that people thought I was trying to entertain them with my multifaceted, chameleonlike character changes. Although I liked doing that, I wasn't out to fool people and say 'Guess which one is me.'

You have to put on more faces to pretend who you are.

Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.

Whether you want to admit it or not, people begin to judge you the minute you walk in the door.