Refusing to Conform Quotes

Growing up is something that you do your whole life. I want to always feel that I can be a kid if I want. Growing up has some negative connotations. Like, you're not supposed to roll around on the ground anymore. You're not supposed to make fun of yourself. You're not supposed to ride a bicycle. But I'm a Toys-R-Us kid.

Since I'm a contrarian, I don't want to go along with what everyone else thinks.

You're made aware of what the industry is and what you need to conform to; I don't fit that, and I'm never going to.

To dig our heels in and say no to a present madness is a good thing, but to walk a new path and say yes is a better thing.

I can't ever see myself playing the romantic lead because that's not me; I'm not that girl.

A lot of people ask: 'Will you play a psycho to really change your image and prove you can act?' But that's not what I'm about.

Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism.

I'm not a fashion victim, and I don't closely follow trends. I dress the way I feel comfortable because, at the end of the day, you have to be comfortable.

I wanted all my life to give my world into other arts - books, plays, movies - but I didn't want to sell out.

I may be a senior, but so what? I'm still hot.

I don't think it's helpful to go dismantling the past, but you can refuse to honor aspects of it that you don't believe in anymore.

I will persist until I succeed. I was not delivered into this world into defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepperd. I am lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny. I will persist until I succeed.

I think I'm the only 65-year-old actress in Los Angeles who hasn't had plastic surgery, so somebody's gotta play the old-lady parts!

I don't dress for effect, and I think that it never works out when someone does.

There aren't many hits like 'Kinky Boots,' so when you get one, the gratitude that comes with it fuels your energy. From the time I started in this business, everybody told me that who I was and what I represented would never work. Well, I get to stand on stage every day and prove the naysayers wrong by doing exactly what they told me not to do.

You have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.

I like the idea of defying the convention of what it is to be in your 40s, or 50s, or 60s.

If you are going to vote against your administration, vote and get the hell out of there

I don't think I'm defying stereotypes on purpose. If it so appears that way, so be it. For me, I've been brought up that way.

To be counter to the culture, you are by definition willfully and actively ignoring the culture, i.e., reality.

I was 7 years old, and I challenged everything. I never accepted answers on face value.

If you have never been called a defiant, incorrigible, impossible woman… have faith. There is yet time.

I'm not a facelift person. I am what I am.

My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them.