Michael Rapaport Quotes

As far as the creative process goes, I always make sure that anything that gets discussed or talked about in the record is true to form. I make it a point not to sing anything that I haven't felt or gone through.

I decided at 15 that I didn't want to be one of those artists that gets up and sings love songs they don't mean. I decided that I was going to be me to the fullest extent, that my songs were going to reflect relationships I've had, things I've been through, and even the stuff I'm embarrassed about.

There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes suck. I'm not trying to please the masses. It's not going to happen, so I don't try.

I need to let people know who I am and instead of just trying to make great records, just be honest and make it more personal and make it more passionate, to make records with emotion and not be afraid to express that.

I feel like if I've written a song about something I haven't experienced, I wouldn't be able to perform it properly, and people would be able to see that. People can see right through that.

We don't wake up happy and looking absolutely perfect and feeling amazing every day, you know? We're only human. So I think, with me, I'm not really scared to let people see that - because it's real.

I just keep it real, and I have written songs from my heart and performed them how they should be performed.

I want to do only those films which come from a real place.

I felt like a failure for so long because I wasn't able to access myself in the way I knew I would have if I was going to make music that mattered. I knew I was going to have to learn how to be honest.

We write out of our humanity by writing through our direct experience. That which is most personal is most general, which becomes both our insight and protection as a writers. This is our authority as women, as human beings.

Requesting permission from someone to be honest is really a way of accusing the other person of being so demanding or overbearing that you couldn't be honest all along.

I see conflict. But the conflict is what makes it relatable. I'm conflicted; you're conflicted. I'm not perfect - nobody is. I'm just blessed to be able to express my conflict through song.

What I write is emotionally honest and truthful as the human experience can be, to make people feel less alone, or at least that's the hope.

All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.

The body is what reminds us on a daily basis that we're human. The body defies us, it betrays us, we have to struggle with it, you know. And it reveals in curious and in abiding ways how we are not perfect.

Everything is painful, so why not be honest about the pain?

Who wants to be a goddess when we can be human? Perfection is a flaw disguised as control.

If honesty is the key to intimacy, it means we don't have to be perfect and we don't have to pretend to be perfect.

me: you know what sucks about love? o.w.g.: what? me: that it's so tied to the truth. I know it sucks, but in a way, it's good....Love and truth being tied together, I mean. They make each other possible, you know?

We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels.

Along with the good qualities, if someone isn't vulnerable I can't be around them to a certain extent. And I don't mean vulnerable to me or vulnerable to me in a sexual way. I just mean vulnerable, period.

If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.

I always remind my kids, "I'm your parent, but I'm a human being, too, so I may not be perfect."

I've been naked physically in movies - but it's a whole other thing to be naked emotionally in a way that's not just a distraction or a character.

Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable.