Quotes About Self-awareness

It's weird, the evolution of a person. You understand yourself, you understand your surroundings. Then, when you understand who came before you, once you understand that about yourself and the energy that you came to this planet with, you understand more about yourself.

I think any black woman is a queen. It's just, do you know it? Do you see it in yourself? Do you recognize it, do you abide by that, do you define yourself as that? Based on who we are and what we've been through and how we survive and where we stand, we are on kind of sacred ground. We stand on the backs of our ancestors.

I sometimes think to myself, 'Who is this woman? It can't possibly be me.' And that's really how you survive.

I'd make a lousy cop. I'd just wear it too close to my skin and wouldn't survive. I'll stick to acting.

I used to do crazy things that people would bail me out of, and I'm just grateful that I survived. But the music got very lost; I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. I was more into just having a good time, and I think it showed.

I never thought of myself as a strong person until I wrote my first book, and people started to say, 'You're a survivor. You're such a strong person.' It never ever occurred to me.

I couldn't be Susan Sontag. I'm not very good with abstract thought. I always just take to the emotional core of me.

I longed to be bright and most certainly never was. I was rather hopeless, I suspect.

I feel like I have a kind of mirror blindness where it's hard for me to characterize or analyze my own work. I suspect I'm not unique in this regard.

I have matured as a man to understand where my suspicion of women comes from and how that has everything to do with me and nothing to do with them. I have to deal with that.

Though I was launched as a hero, I was quick to realise that I did not have the capacity to sustain that position. I then reinvented myself intelligently and became a character artiste instead.

I'm not really a swagger guy.

Living my life socially means there is a swagger to how I dress, walk; it's not about being 'cool,' it's just being me - that's understanding your place and your center - that's what swagger is, and I guess that's where the soul comes from.

I just have to accept that I won't ever be Al Green, which is a hard pill to swallow.

Yes, I don't think I shall ever become Prime Minister. Hard as that is to swallow, I tell you one person who is very happy always to see me say that, and that's my wife.

I used to swallow people's energies, and then I learned, as I got older, that I'm too sensitive, and I had to stop doing that. Now I don't take as much in.

Here's the thing: I was charming. Well read and well spoken. Observant and even kind. In other words, I was kind of a catch. And I knew this was true. As long as you couldn't see me. If you saw me, you'd think I was the sea cow that had swallowed your catch.

What I find funny are peoples' blind spots. That's the funniest thing about anybody - when they just don't realize who they are. What's funny about seeing a hippo do ballet is it thinks it's a swan.

In an ideal world, we would be able to just swap characters' genders around because I don't ever wake up in the morning and think to myself, 'Oh I am such a woman today,' because that is just so ridiculous.

In this business, it's easy for either your heart or your head to be swayed, and I try to always stay true to who I am.

I do listen to myself sometimes and think, 'Is my moral compass so easily swayed by the characters I play, or is it me growing as a human being?'

I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five.

I swear too much.

I don't like sweating the details, and I'm pretty disorganized. To be a better leader, I need to stay on top of these shortcomings, and being reminded really helps.