When you own an apartment in NewYork, it's important to know what's happening in your building. Each building runs as its own little municipal town. Much like you might be interested in knowing what is happening in your town because it has a direct effect on the value of your property.
Sometimes, you can be your own thing that hurts you. It's you. It's like knowing too much of the game when really all you need to do is play the thing that's really happening in front of you.
Write like you write, like you can't help but write, and your voice will become yours and yours alone. It'll take time but it'll happen as long as you let it. Own your voice, for your voice is your own. Once you know where your voice lives, you no longer have to worry so much about being derivative.
Democracy can tie your hands in a rock 'n' roll band, you know? It can be a great thing, but if you've got a certain amount of vision and you write a lot of songs, it's sometimes better to have your own band and make your own decisions.
Normally, with stand-up, it's quite solitary, you write the material on your own, you perform it on your own, it's all very much on you. Your own thoughts. You have to sort of modulate your own performance.
Respect is one of the greatest expressions of love. If other people try to write your story, it means they don't respect you. They consider that you're not a good artist who can write your own story, even though you were born to write your own story.
Only write from your own passion, your own truth. That's the only thing you really know about, and anything else leads you away from the pulse.
Don't depend on a guy for your happiness. You have to live your own life and do your own thing. That's when good things come around - when you do your own thing and you're not worried about a man. It will happen in due time.
You have to surrender to your mediocrity, and just write. Because it's hard, really hard, to write even a crappy book. But it's better to write a book that kind of sucks rather than no book at all, as you wait around to magically become Faulkner. No one is going to write your book for you and you can't write anybody's book but your own.
National identity is a motion. It's something you're inside, you don't get what's happening, you can't see it from above. And that's where you have to write. You can't see what's happening now or what's going to happen, so you just dive into it and write.
Make your own worlds. Make your own laws. Make your own creations, your own star systems. Don't feel answerable to anyone, or as though you have to create after some preordained model. You don't have to write like myself, or King or Anne Rice: be yourself. Nothing is more wonderful than discovering a new voice, particularly if it happens to be your own.
We have enough to worry about with what's happening in our nation to worry about what's happening in California. Keep your feet grounded in your own backyard and together we're going to build communities that work.
Acting is so much about waiting... waiting for an audition, waiting for the right part to come along. It's nice to write your own thing, write about what you're feeling and then go out and perform them. It's a nice thing to have and not get bored.
I want people with epilepsy to know that there are ways in which they can play a role in their own recovery. It's all in how they approach what is happening and how they can use that as a catalyst for their own growth. If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that people are willing to embrace you if you share your story.
If you really want to know what's happening here and now, you've got to use your own eyes and your own judgment.
This is my life; these are my fingerprints; I'm unique; this is what I want to do. You worry about your own front porch and what's happening in your own world.