Quotes About Identity

Because my illness at this stage has no cure, I can forever own this discomfort of the body. I can always say this was all a mistake. To find a home in my body is to tell a story that doesn't exist. I am a foreigner, but in ways that go much deeper than I thought, under the epidermis and into the blood cells.

I married him for a green card. We had a really great, caring relationship it just obviously wasn't right for me.

My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. I had to be with her, and I just figured I'd deal with the other stuff later.

I was very sexual from a very young age.

You live with the fear people might find out. Then you actually have the courage to tell people and they go, I don't think you are gay. It's enough to drive you crazy.

The most important thing for me was to never, ever, ever deny it. But I didn't really have the courage to talk about it. I was thinking, The people who need to know I'm gay know.

But he knew he'd started reading books on Sri Lanka, because he needed to explain things, to himself and others -- because if that world, his world over there had ever made sense, it seemed far more confused when questioned from outside.

The fragility of the intellectual is the same as the poet's: It's all about the I and its desperate sense of the we.

One gets to start enjoying one's ANONYMITY, the moment one gets FAMOUS.

Jangan panggil aku perempuan sejati jika hidup hanya berkalang lelaki... Namun bukan berarti aku tak butuh lelaki untuk aku cintai...

Jangan sebut aku perempuan sejati jika hidup hanya berkalang lelaki. Tapi bukan berarti aku tidak butuh lelaki untuk aku cintai. (Nyai Ontosoroh)

Indonesia adalah negeri budak. Budak di antara bangsa dan budak bagi bangsa-bangsa lain.

Tanpa mempelajari bahasa sendiri pun orang takkan mengenal bangsanya sendiri

Ilmu pengetahuan, Tuan-tuan, betapa pun tingginya, dia tidak berpribadi. Sehebat-hebatnya mesin, dibikin oleh sehebat-hebat manusia dia pun tidak berpribadi. Tetapi sesederhana-sederhana cerita yang ditulis, dia mewakili pribadi individu atau malahan bisa juga bangsanya. Kan begitu Tuan Jenderal?

Kowé kira, kalo sudah pake pakean Eropa, bersama orang Eropa, bisa sedikit bicara Belanda lantas jadi Eropa? Tetap monyet!

Such was the love of this grandson for his grandmother that two years after the death of his mother, when she herself fell gravely ill, he vowed to her that someday he would try to tell the world her life story. 'But why?' she asked humbly. 'I'm no one, just a girl from the coast' 'But you are everyone, Grandma,' the young Pramoedya told her. 'You are all the people who have ever had to fight to make this life their own.

Sejak zaman kompeni, Aceh punya keberanian individu, Jawa punya keberanian kelompok. Beda sekali.

Binatang itu bicara, makan -- tapi tak mengerti dirinya sendiri. Dan aku begitu juga.

Kalau orang tak tahu sejarah bangsanya sendiri –tanah airnya sendiri– gampang jadi orang asing di antara bangsa sendiri.

Kau tak kenal bangsamu sendiri.

Bagaimana bisa manusia hanya ditimbang dari surat-surat resmi belaka, dan tidak dari wujudnya sebagai manusia?

dan modern adalah juga kesunyian manusia yatim-piatu dikutuk untuk membebaskan diri dari segala ikatan yang tidak diperlukan: adat, darah, bahkan juga bumi, kalau perlu juga sesamanya.

Han, memang bukan sesuatu yang baru Jalan setapak setiap orang dalam mencari tempat ditengah-tengah dunia dan masyarakatnya, untuk menjadi diri sendiri, melelahkan dan membosankan untuk diikuti. Lebih membosankan adalah mengamati yang tidak membutuhkan sesuatu jalan, menjangkarkan akar tunggang pada bumi dan tumbuh pada pohon.

I've often heard people say, "Your country is beautiful, a virtual paradise." When will the people of Indonesia be as beautiful as their land, with a civilization and culture that contributes to the greater beauty of humankind and no longer smothers and strangles the mind?