"Style is a way of saying who you are without having to speak."
Hilton Als' quote suggests that personal style, whether it's in clothing, behavior, or creative expression, serves as a silent form of self-expression. It allows individuals to communicate their identity, individuality, and personality to the world without relying on spoken words. This quote highlights the powerful role fashion and presentation play in defining one's character and helping others understand and connect with us on an emotional level.
"To be with someone who makes your heart skip is always to be in love."
This quote emphasizes the passionate, exhilarating, and overwhelming feeling that true love can evoke within us. When one encounters a person who ignites such strong emotions, their heart literally skips a beat – a testament to the intensity of their feelings. It suggests that if someone consistently has this effect on you, then you are indeed in love with them.
"We can't see ourselves as others see us. We can only hear what they tell us, and sometimes the things they tell us are untrue."
This quote underscores the subjective nature of self-perception. It suggests that we often lack the ability to accurately comprehend how others perceive us. While we might be able to hear what they say, it's not always the truth about how we appear to them. This can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications, as our self-image may differ significantly from the way we are perceived by others. It highlights the importance of open dialogue and empathy in understanding ourselves and others more accurately.
"What we need to learn is when to stop caring about what other people think."
This quote by Hilton Als emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, personal growth, and the development of inner strength. It suggests that one should not let societal expectations or others' opinions dictate their own feelings, thoughts, or actions. Instead, people should learn when to prioritize their own wellbeing and happiness over external validation, fostering a healthier sense of self-worth and personal empowerment.
"Being a man has its advantages; being a man who can cry at movies or while reading novels, however, is an advantage of a different order."
This quote highlights the societal expectation for men to conform to traditional masculine roles that suppress emotions like crying. However, Hilton Als suggests that the ability to express vulnerability through tears, whether watching movies or reading novels, elevates a man's emotional intelligence beyond the standard notion of masculinity, making him more unique and exceptional. This quote emphasizes the importance of embracing emotions and the power of empathy in both men and women.
Black excellence is a thing. People - from Beyonce Knowles to Venus and Serena Williams to folks you haven't heard of - are into it. It's less a movement than a standard: believers set the bar high not only for themselves but also for others who share their vision, especially when it pertains to black history, stories, and style.
- Hilton Als
I think one of the things that started to hinder Baldwin as an artist later on was that he became really aware of power, so he wanted it, too. But if you look at the work before that, before 'The Fire Next Time' put him on the cover of 'Time Magazine,' it was much more intimate and a much more internal conversation.
- Hilton Als
Dramas about addiction can be exciting to watch. And then dispiriting. Exciting because degradation is fascinating to follow from the relative safety and smugness of an 'appropriate' life, and dispiriting because if all that sad mayhem can happen to this or that character, what's to keep it from happening to me or you?
- Hilton Als
If I feel like I haven't really tapped into the essence of the story when I do an assignment, I may revisit it on my own, and that's when I feel freer to add my imagination. But I think that if you feel imaginatively towards a subject, you really shouldn't do it in a journalistic context, because then you're just fabricating, and that's crazy.
- Hilton Als
I think that Tyler Perry's genius really has been to tap into the domestic market. He knows what his audience is based on, having toured America for so long, and then giving them the blueprint for his films prior to the films coming out, and then the films have the built-in audience because they've seen it in theaters already.
- Hilton Als
I think someone like Khandi Alexander, who's now on 'Treme,' is one of the most extraordinary actresses I've seen in years. But she's dependent on someone brilliant like David Simon to realize that and to give her a forum. Tyler Perry's not interested in that kind of nuance because it doesn't sell.
- Hilton Als
'Moonlight' undoes our expectations as viewers, and as human beings, too. As we watch, another movie plays in our minds: real-life footage of the many forms of damage done to black men, which can sometimes lead them to turn that hateful madness on their own kind, passing on the poison that was their inheritance.
- Hilton Als
I grew up in a largely black community during the '70s and '80s that scoffed at 'white' music. That music - folk, rock, some disco - was considered soulless, aberrant, just one more example of the Caucasian's desire to scream and yell and demand whatever their privilege and perpetual adolescence dictated they should demand.
- Hilton Als
I think that when I'm telling a story, I'm doing the best I can to tell the story as fully as I can, and if there are various fractures that happen in the story, then that's just the very thing that the story is as opposed to my looking for avenues of difference in one story. They just really do exist. For me, anyway.
- Hilton Als
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