Quotes About Identity

real father, his only father." I was

Nothing is more dangerous for me than to forget that I am a man both of reason and supernatural perception. When I function in only one mode or the other, I am denying half myself, half my potential

books were a way to lead another life, a way to be someone else entirely, to be anyone at all.

Carson heard that expression more often these days—It is what it is—and it nettled him every time someone spoke it. He wanted to say to Eckman, You are what you are, and now I know what that is.

You are made of bent coat hangers, honey, gravel, epoxy and handstands. I am made of lying on the floor, the same song on repeat.

On mornings when I hope you forget my name, I walk through the high wet weeds that don't have names either. I do not remember the word dew. I do not remember what I told you with your ear in my teeth.

It is the greatest mistake," he said, "to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour. We think that if a man is called Ivan he is always Ivan. Nothing of the kind. Now he is Ivan, in another minute he is Peter, and a minute later he is Nicholas, Sergius, Matthew, Simon. And all of you think he is Ivan.

Challenge the person you think you are in order to unveil the person you are capable of becoming.

Freedom is being able to choose whoever and whatever you want to be at any moment in your life.

Through our maps, we willingly become a part of their boundaries. If our home is included, we feel pride, perhaps familiarity, but always a sense that this is ours . If it is not, we accept our roles as outsiders, though we may be of the same mind and culture. In this way, maps can be dangerous and powerful tools.

Sometimes I think we're afraid to admit we want certain things. Especially things that contradict the image we have of ourselves.

it takes a hell of a man to replace no man.

Pastor…" I stood outside, unsure this was the right place. "This is it? Hope Center?" I called him pastor but I thought of him as Drew. That was the way he'd introduced himself to me and it was the name that stuck in my head

The only way I could achieve fulfillment was to find myself a new one.

now? When she looked at herself she saw her outside changing, growing older, while inside she still felt young. Aging was a strange thing—made you feel like you were wearing a striped shirt and plaid pants. Mismatched. Because you never felt as old inside as you looked on the outside.

Large Women Wearing Helmets With Horns

A woman trying to function like a man is as ridiculous as a man trying to be like a woman. A unisex society is a senseless society—a society dangerously out of order.

Does our essence still lie in what we know, or are we now content to be defined by what we want? If we don't grapple with that question ourselves, our gadgets will be happy to answer it for us.

I stop to change my film. Without the camera to shield my eyes, I start to feel weak. Queasy. The room tilts. I see the heart lying there, inert and cold. I see the women shoving it back inside the chest cavity... I picture the cavity behind my eyes, and instead of a brain I imagine an enormous roll of film, winding maniacally inside a bloodless metallic skull. A simple recording device, nothing more.

The part of me that's me is gone. I'm just part of this line of people. There's no me left. I'm nothing.

They were going to turn her into a boy.

There's something very freeing about losing the anchors that have always defined you. Frightening, sad, but exhilarating in a poignant way, as well. You're free to float to the moon and evaporate or sink to the bottom of the deepest ocean. But you're free to explore. Some people confuse that with drifting, I suppose. I like to think of it as growing.

Interviewing Questions •What word would you say describes you best? •Do you have a personal motto or creed? •Do you have any heroes that you greatly admire? •What did people in high school think you were like? •What do you do that you wish you could stop doing?

She is focused on living her own full life, following her own agenda and cultivating her actual self, rather than reinventing herself or pining away to be someone she's not.