My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day.

I told them this story:
In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day.

Tom Waits

Tags: humor individuality music non-conformity musician

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A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't.

Tom Waits

Tags: musician freakin

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An entrepreneur without funding is a musician without an instrument.

Robert A. Rice Jr.

Tags: business musician entrepreneur funding instrument startup

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When they say the sky's the limit to me that's really true

Michael Jackson

Tags: wisdom inspirational confidence dreaming musician

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I started to be really proud of the fact I was gay even though I wasn't

Kurt Cobain

Tags: sexuality gay musician

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Everybody sees me as this sullen and insecure little thing. Those are just the sides of me that I feel necessary to show because no one else seems to be showing them.

Fiona Apple

Tags: secrets body-image insecurity musician shyness

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I don't want to give advice to a 19-year-old, because I want a 19-year-old to make mistakes and learn from them. Make mistakes, make mistakes, make mistakes. Just make sure they're your mistakes.

Fiona Apple

Tags: life learning mistakes musician

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I was so self-critical. I still am; but it's not as bad anymore.

Fiona Apple

Tags: inspirational depression musician self-hate

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I've gone through stages where I hate my body so much that I won't even wear shorts and a bra in my house because if I pass a mirror, that's the end of my day.

Fiona Apple

Tags: body-image musician self-hate

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Nothing that you do will ever feel good if you let people convince you that you have no choice.

Fiona Apple

Tags: musician

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