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.
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.
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.
It is very important to be aware that you may never be satistied with your analytic career if you feel that you are restricted to what is narrowly called a ‘scientific’ approach. You will have to be able to have a chance of feeling that the interpretation you give is a beautiful one, or that you get a beautiful response from the patient. This aesthetic element of beauty makes a very difficult situation tolerable.
This person had arrived, he had illuminated her, he had ensorcelled her with notions of miracle and beauty, he had both understood and misunderstood her, he had married her, he had broken her heart, he had looked upon her with those sad and hopeless eyes, he had accepted his banishment, and now he was gone. What a stark and stunning thing was life- that such a cataclysm can enter and depart so quickly, and leave such wreckage behind!
For external beauty, you put on things; for real beauty, you have to drop all things. For external beauty you have to have make-up; for real beauty you only have to realize that you are already made up.
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