No, I'm not going to walk around every day of my life depending on the opinions of other people. Because if I do that, I'll just be trying to please everybody and that's not what I'm here for. Chris Brown Chris Brown on Pleasing Everyone January 27, 2015 Source: The Guardian, 2013
There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge people others based on the curl of their hair. Zendaya Coleman
You need to make peace with yourself, loving your body, loving your features and your skin, accepting who you are and what you are. The harmony will clearly show. Maria Borges
Some people go buy the Audi, some people go buy the Benz, some people buy Bentleys, some people buy Aston Martins, whichever is an effect of your personality, but so many people try to put their personality on someone else. Kanye West
The world has wanted me to speak differently than I speak. I speak like my mom; I speak like the whitest white dude; I speak like a Def Comedy Jam comedian doing an impression of a white guy. Jordan Peele
I think that, at this point, we should just follow our hearts and really not worry about what other people think. Sanaa Lathan
I started thinking, what if I went my whole life trying to please everybody? You will never please everybody. And you haven’t pleased yourself ’cos you’ve been so busy trying to please everybody and then it’s too late. I had to have that breakthrough, to tap into who I really was. Rihanna
We as African-American artists are more concerned with image and message and not execution which is why every time you see your images they’ve been watered down to the point where they are not realistic at all. Viola Davis
As long as you’re doing something good, people will always bring up old stuff or negative stuff because they don’t want you to surpass a certain level or elevate. But as long as you have your head on straight, it shouldn’t matter what people want to say. Chris Brown
Everybody has an opinion about everything. But an opinion is just an opinion – I can only respect it but I can’t do anything to change their minds or to change the way I feel. Nothing is going to change because of their opinion. Rihanna
I don’t know what I am. I don’t care whether people call me jazz or pop. I just love to sing, and I try to sing whatever I think people want to hear. Songs that fit my style. Ella Fitzgerald
Do you know, it's funny but I never thought of being blind as a disadvantage, and I never thought of being black as a disadvantage. I am what I am. I love me! And I don't mean that egotistically – I love that God has allowed me to take whatever it was that I had and to make something out of it. Stevie Wonder
I don't want to tell you what you need to do. I mean, I'm not turning it up to 10 when it comes to being correct, I'm not that guy, I like my wine. Denzel Washington
When I was growing up, trying to have hair I didn't have, straightening it, using heat, I was actually ruining what I was given. It was when I realized I needed to stop trying to be somebody else and be myself, I actually started to own, accept and love what I had. Tracee Ellis Ross
For me being truly significant is about knowing who you are and using that knowledge to chart your life path. Franne McNeal
I’m sorry. I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure. Kanye West
There are a lot of things that I really wanted to be a part of... but I wasn't the specific look of what's 'beautiful' or 'exotic' or 'ethnically ambiguous.' I'm a black woman, undeniably. Naturi Naughton
Whatever you do, you’re going to do it at your pace and however it is that you do it. It’s going to be different from how anybody else does it and that’s enough. That’s all it has to be. Tatyana Ali
I think I got to that place by not being happy with the other side — hating your body and criticizing yourself all the time. When I was around 18, I looked in the mirror and said, You're either going to love yourself or hate yourself. And I decided to love myself. That changed a lot of things. Queen Latifah
Why is it that people just have to have so much to say about me? It bugs me because I'm not that important. Miles Davis
But certainly I used to wish I looked more like those girls in videos. I certainly used to wish that I was skinny, lighter-skinned, with long, pretty hair. But only because I used to get made fun of for being the absolute opposite. I didn’t see all of that stuff as the American Dream. I just wanted to look normal. Gabourey Sidibe
