We spend so long trying to be what other people want,that when we look in the mirror,we see a stranger.

I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different, and with being this alive, this intense. (xxvi)

It was almost painful to be different.

Life’s no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe’s my own to fool with.

Just because a person chooses to express themselves in an extreme way doesn’t mean they have an extreme personality.

So you’re a little weird? Work it! A little different? OWN it! Better to be a nerd than one of the herd!

It has always been simple, but making it hard was always your way of avoiding pain. If you want to change your life, you have to change what you are doing. It wasn’t his fault,...

People felt themselves watching him even before they knew that there was anything different about him. His eyes made a person think that he heard things that no one else had ever heard, that he...

Freedom means nothing unless it means the freedom to be different

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, but I chose neither one. Instead, I set sail in my little boat to watch a sunset from a different view that couldn’t be seen from shore. Then...

ANYTHING being discussed in a group is particularly good only if that very thing is not particularly supporting ANYONE.

Our true self is being who we are.

Common people are often enough; that is why God made so many of them. Your job is to be— EXTRAORDINARY.

A person who does many things differently and often independently makes perhaps the biggest difference of the highest significance for the greatest excellence in everyone’s life.

Ordinary people are products of their environment and fit in. Artists transcend their environment and stand out.

Unique is what one person does alone. What is not unique is what others have to collaborate on.

You can’t put your heart into everything; you’ve just got to show up. And if your heart is worn all over you, then so be it, but you can’t pull it out of you and...

The psychology of individual creativity is about at least three different things. First, creativity is about thinking differently. Second, creativity is about feeling differently. Third, creativity is about focusing, or committing, differently.

When you’re the only sane person, you look like the only insane person.

Everybody in the world wants to be understood and to have others appreciate them.Being different is scary. Solitude is pain and loneliness.

If ever it’s necessary to ride the bandwagon, it’s done with one leg swinging out and eyes scoping the fields.

Do not be afraid to color outside the lines. Take risks and do not be afraid to fail. Know that when the world knocks you down, the best revenge is to get up and continue...

Yes, be different, but not for the vanities of being different.

It’s been happening since I was in kindergarten. Not them all the time, but other kids, you know. Every day. It never stops, and it never goes away, thanks to the Internet–it just keeps happening...

Great artists are a little too gifted to be bound by boxes and labels, and in saying that, the label ‘artist’ is to be used lightly.

So what? You’re another person, so of course you look different. What do you need to be ashamed for?