Suzan-Lori Parks Quotes

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

Everybody has their own way of tapping into their realness.

I don't know what else I would be if I wasn't me. I am not looking from the outside, looking back. I am who I am.

I go in solitude, so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think; after a time it always seems as if they want to banish myself from myself and rob me of my soul.

People actually live with their id exposed. They're not good at concealing what's going on inside.

I intend to be me. Whatever that is.

I am a private human.

Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life.

I don't think it's about entertainment. I think it's about being ourselves.

Behind my door at home, that's when I'm relaxed, and that's when I can allow the emotions or whatever - to feel just what I want to feel - so a lot of people don't know me in that respect. I need a bit of space, a bit of a place to come home to and not have to pretend or perform anymore, where I'm just myself.

You don't want to spend your life explaining yourself.

If you can understand the inner life, then you can wear the uniform, the tattoos, or whatnot and realize that the things that are different about us become superficial.

You're an island no matter what you do. I think it's very dangerous to use popularity as your identity in life. So you have to really know who you are inside, the core person, and follow what is true rather than follow what is hype.

To leave in search of yourself, of your real needs, is easier when you don't have to justify yourself to anyone, when there are not too many people bestowing you their attention.

I like to write when I feel I'm the real me.

It's not an act, it's just my way.

It's hard to just kinda get some privacy and do your own thing.

Maintaining a sense of your personality grounds you in your space. I try and just make what I wear a reflection of how I feel at that moment, at that particular place in time.

I don't find myself intriguing.

A lot of people have their own idea of how you need to conduct yourself. But I think it's important to be spontaneous and honest, because what's frightening in the process of being correct is that you might lose yourself.

People don't know who I am from my clothes, and they don't need to.

I'm not what I make.

All my work is not personal - I've been trying to get away from that into the true self underneath all the tastes and things we think make up a self.

Just keep being yourself. Keep being yourself, and people recognize it.

Because I get my hair styled in so many different ways, when I get the chance to be natural and just me as a person and not an actress, I like to have a stable, consistent look that reminds me that I'm me.