In my research, I've interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call 'different': scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.
The people who are most attractive to me are those who feel most comfortable in their skin - there's a sense of self-acceptance.
Self-censorship has become a part of me. I think because we live in a place where community is very important, family is very important, you feel the weight of how people look at you. Even though I might seem very modern and very liberated, I still have a lot of issues to deal with. I'm scared of how people look at me.
It's good to be selfish. But not so self-centered that you never listen to other people.
The funny thing about the people I don't like - they're very self-centered.
Nothing about the priesthood is self-centered. The priesthood always is used to serve, to bless, and to strengthen other people.
Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.
I would argue that we have a generation of young people, particularly minorities, who are no longer putting up with the kinds of things their parents put up with. They're much more self-confident. It's no longer acceptable to make fun of people because of race or sex. But it has always been present in American society.
I'm one of the world's most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.
People look at me and go, 'He's only successful because he's got a bunch of 16-year-old girls at his back who don't understand comedy.' Well, they do. In any case, no one hates me more than I do; no one's more self-conscious about that than I am.
I feel empathy for people who are trapped in a prison of self-consciousness in an uncomfortable way. We can be free, but we're so held back. So perhaps that's why I feel a duty to make my work. I feel liberated when I'm doing it, and I want other people to feel liberated through it.
China is one of those vast, continental conglomerates that... I mean, if they were to start a tourist trade in China, they'd just bus people in from another province, you know what I mean? They're very self-contained.
Crime is one of the leads of the show. If there's ever anything that deals with a character's personal life, you don't have to worry about it getting too crazy. People don't have to worry about character arcs. Each episode is a self-contained unit.
You really want some natural way for people to get Bitcoins, as part of their paycheck or some other activity so they can turn around and spend them. It's much better if the Bitcoin economy is a self-contained thing.
It's easy to become very self-critical when you're an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.
Where are the exhortations for children to reject the self-defeating stereotypes that reduce black people to violent, oversexed 'gangstas,' minstrel show comedians and mindless athletes?
Every time we watch a little story play out inside our head, we're fantasizing, whether we realize it or not, and it seems to me that, though succumbing to fantasies about other people can be dangerous or self-defeating, the act of fantasizing itself is also an essential part of being human, of being capable of both abstraction and empathy.
People forget that boxing is the art of self-defence - ideally, hit and not be hit - and maybe we should all think about that a bit more.
We have this tradition of the Second Amendment and people's rights to self-defense and a certain suspicion that the government can't be trusted.
People - and I include myself - get fat because they choose pleasure over self-denial.
