Virginia Graham Quotes

The burden of originality is one that most people don't want to accept. They'd rather sit in front of the TV and let that tell them what they're supposed to like, what they're supposed to buy, and what they're supposed to laugh at.

The main problem I've always had with fashion media is that women are encouraged to copy other women.

I was so interested in makeup, but I was pressured to follow what my family and friends wanted me to do.

I don't want to live up to how people expect me to be.

I know that many people kill off their real personality just to fit into this society, but why do we have to compromise? I never understood that. I decided to try to be myself and to live by my own values rather than those of others.

Even as a child, I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want to wear red lipstick.

Anyone who draws attention to himself as an individual, is viewed with suspicion. We acquired this tendency, of course, from America, and we must resist it: levelling, and imitation of what others are already doing.

Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done

When people are free to do as we please, they usually imitate each other.

Being an artist and a human in this world always means confronting people who make you feel like you have to act according to their rules.

We're living at this funny time, where we're all urged to express ourselves as unique individuals, but on the other hand, we share a limited set of tools for doing that. It's easy to feel like nothing more than the sum of your consumer choices.

If you live your life by what others say, it stops being your life.

Be neither a conformist or a rebel, for they are really the same thing. Find your own path, and stay on it.

In these days the young folks is all copy-cats, 'fraid to death they won't be all just alike; as for the old folks, they pray for the advantage o' bein' a little different.

Some people dye their hair yellow or put rings in their noses. I decided I wasn't going to open an account. Put it the other way round - there was no reason that I should.

I discovered very early that it wasn't quite enough for me to imitate people.

I refuse to act the way someone expects me to.

Language is wild - you can't fence it or tell it what to do - and it's the same with people. Even under the worst excesses of Stalinism or consumerism, the human spirit will still express itself.

I wouldn't even have braces on my teeth. I think they are horrible and this idea that everyone should conform and be perfect is ridiculous.

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

I was seen in earlier years by family members and people of authority as somebody wasting his time. I had trouble with the restrictions of conformity. It made me edgy.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

I'm not going to conform to some consumer need.