Like most girls I'm always really self-conscious about do I look fat, if my legs are short, if I'm weird shaped, but when I go on stage, man, it never occurs to me. I think I look beautiful.
Interpretation
The quote expresses how self-perception can change in different contexts, highlighting self-acceptance and confidence on stage.
Janis Joplin's quote reveals the complexity of body image and self-esteem, particularly for women. It illustrates how societal pressures can make individuals self-conscious in everyday life, but the power of performance provides a transformative space where confidence flourishes, allowing her to embrace her beauty and authenticity without fear of judgment.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about self-acceptance and personal empowerment.
I gotta go on doin' it the way I see it...I got no choice but to take it like I see it. I'm here to have a party while I'm on this earth...I'm gettin' it now, today. I don't even know where I'm gonna be twenty years from now, so I'm just gonna keep on rockin', cause if I start saving up bits and pieces of me...man, there ain't gonna be nothing left for Janis.
When I sing, I feel like when you're first in love. It's more than sex. It's that point two people can get to they call love, when you really touch someone for the first time, but it's gigantic, multiplied by the whole audience. I feel chills.
I won't quit to become someone's old lady.
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
You can feel all things at once, so why not wear all things at once?
Wait a minute, maybe I can do anything.
I grew up feeling unattractive, and it took a long time to grow into a place where I was comfortable with me.
The only person that can make you feel that you aren't beautiful is you.
In comparison to other women in the world, perhaps I'm seen as smaller. But I've never had a problem thinking of myself as a large woman.
The world does not yield to changing. By its very nature it is painful and transient. See it as it is and divest yourself of all desire and fear. When the world does not hold and bind you, it becomes an abode of joy and beauty. You can be happy in the world only when you are free of it.
So we live in an accelerating possibility curve. Perhaps we can't control it, but we can learn to ride it like a surfer on a wave or a bird on a thermal, to use its power to take us where we want to go - to live in uncertainty and yet act with confidence.
She, though in full-blown flower of glorious beauty, Grows cold even in the summer of her age.
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