I am not The Rock. I am Dwayne Johnson.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

I can simply tell you that since I was a kid, I didn’t like to look like anyone else.

I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, ‚black feminist‘ does not do that. I need a word that is organic, that really comes out of the culture, that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it’s just… womanish.

When I’m surfing, I’m sure not thinking about the paparazzi. I guess if they start getting on floaties and coming out there in the water, then I might be a little upset.

I’m easy to look like, so there are lots and lots of Dolly look-alikes.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

In heaven an angel is nobody in particular.

Because I’m small, I’ve been called things from ‚Happy Feet‘ to ‚Little Face.‘

I think women want freedom. They want to be empowered. They want hope. They want love; they want all the things that I want, and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.

Everywhere I go, the kids call me ‚the book lady.‘ The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the ‚book lady‘ title. It makes me feel more like a legitimate person, not just a singer or an entertainer. But it makes me feel like I’ve done something good with my life and with my success.

Will and intellect are one and the same thing.

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.

What a blast it is to be here with Michael Moore.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you.

If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ‚em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.

I don’t blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they’ll realize there’s more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

As human beings, we are all not conducting just one narrative but many narratives all at the same time.

I don’t see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear ‚pop,‘ you’re like, ‚Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,‘ and I feel like, ‚Uh-uh. That’s not me.‘

To kids, I’ve always been more than just some big tough black guy. I train to be tough – I box and do karate – but underneath all that toughness is a tender man.

India does not need to become anything else. India must become only India. This is a country that once upon a time was called the golden bird.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it – aliens.

Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.

I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

If you feel that there’s the author and then the character, then the book is not working. People have a habit of identifying the author with the narrator, and you can’t, obviously, be all of the narrators in all of your books, or else you’d be a very strange person indeed.

I’ve never had that much trouble with the paparazzi, but I don’t run the same circles that a lot of these people that do get hounded by the paparazzi.

I’ve never seen myself as a star. I never call myself a celebrity or a superstar, whatever.

The little man is still a man.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

I’ve been invited to do ‚Dancing With the Stars‘ three times, but Lifetime said no.

I’m home a lot. Because I live in Ireland, we can live under the celebrity radar. I might go missing for a whole year.

My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that’s it. I don’t tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.

Everyone, no doubt, remains first and foremost a man of his own country and continues to draw from it his motive force.

If you ever see The Rock working out in the gym, don’t think you can just go up and disturb his workout and expect him to take a picture. He’s there to work, so kindly just pass the silverback on by or he’ll rip your face off.

At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name.

Lady Gaga is my name. If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

I think the message has already been sent to Hollywood, which is that this kid’s a hard worker, he’s talented, and people are coming out to see him. And when you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you. I don’t ever feel like the cool kid at the party, ever. It’s like, ‚Smile and be nice to everybody, because you were not invited to be here.‘

We’re so trendy we can’t even escape ourselves.

I am what I am. A fighter.

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.

I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

I saw a picture of myself when I came out of the hospital. I didn’t recognize myself.

I’m not concerned with people seeing me in a certain way. Some people see me as a kid, some people see me as an adult. But I’m seriously not going to complain how anybody sees me, as long as they see me.

I feel Anglo-American.

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

Through my films I’m eventually trying to one day tell the truth. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get there, but I’m slowly letting pieces of myself out there and then maybe by the time I’m 85, I’ll look back and say, ‚All right, that about sums it up.‘