Quotes About Identity

because she couldn't write the name of what she was: a wa wam owm owamn womn

I think I know what sort of person I am. But then I think, But this stranger will imagine me quite otherwise when he or she hears this or that to my credit, for instance that I have a position at the university: the fact that I have a position at the university will appear to mean that I must be the sort of person who has a position at the university.

I have never associated myself with such an unexpected part of the body as the thyroid

We know we are very special. Yet we keep trying to find out in what way: not this way, not that way, then what way?

I have never associated myself with such an unexpected part of the body as the thyroid, so it feels as though my body is suddenly strange to me, or I am strange to myself.

I looked like a woman in glasses, but I had dreams of leading a very different kind of life, the life of a woman who would not wear glasses, the kind of woman I saw from a distance now and then in a bar.

it occurs to me that I must not know altogether what I am, either, and that others know certain things about me better than I do, though I think I ought to know all there is to know and I proceed as if I do. Even once I see this, however, I have no choice but to continue to proceed as if I know altogether what I am, though I may also try to guess, from time to time, just what it is that others know that I do not know.

We know we are very special," Davis writes in "Special": "Yet we keep trying to find out in what way: not this way, not that way, then what way?" (from James Wood's review of the FSG "Collected Stories of Lydia Davis")

What was a face on television but a code, and what was the difference between these faces but a realignment of line and color to shift among signals? If he grasped deeply this language of symbols, grasped it beneath the surface, he could course through the currents of authority as they coursed through him like heat or the tremble of cold.

Although she didn't have the plumbing, she deluded herself that she was the modern W.C. (about Margaret Thatcher, M.T.)

Acaso un artista puede amar tanto su trabajo que, si piensa que su obra no tiene vida, tampoco él quiere tenerla ya?

As personagens são como vampiros, cravam os caninos na nossa jugular e quando amanhece, voltam aos seus sepulcros até que anoiteça de novo. O fim do livro seria a pedra que ponho sobre esses visitantes. Definitivamente? Não. Um dia, de repente, com outro nome e outras feições e em outro tempo volta mascarada a mesma personagem, elas gostam da vida. Como nós.

Via agora que jamais poderia se libertar das suas antigas faces, impossível negá-las porque tinha qualquer coisa de comum que permanecia no fundo de cada uma delas, qualquer coisa que era como uma misteriosa unidade ligando umas às outras, sucessivamente, até chegar à face atual.

Sempre fomos o que os homens disseram que nós éramos. Agora somos nós que vamos dizer o que somos.

Lembro da ampulheta quebrada, entrei no escritório do pai para pegar o lápis vermelho e esbarrei no vidro do tempo. Fiquei em pânico vendo o tempo estacionado no chão: dois punhados de areia e os cacos. Passado e futuro. E eu? Onde ficava eu agora que o era e o será se despedaçaram? Só o funil da ampulheta resistira e no funil, o grão de areia em trânsito sem se comprometer com os extremos. Livre.

Mulher sem homem acaba tão complexada, tão infeliz. Com homem também, tenho ganas de dizer-lhe e dar-lhe o espelho na mão.

Literatura, bah. As mulheres já estão encontrando sua medida. Eles virão em seguida, acho que no futuro só vai haver andróginos - digo e fico rindo.

Quanto mais firo os que amo mais vou ferindo a mim mesma. Perco os outros e me perco, não é curioso isso? Marfa acha que só poderei me encontrar fazendo psicanálise. — Você vai se encontrar sem precisar dessas muletas, Raíza. Vai se salvar sem precisar de qualquer ajuda, estou certo disso. Um dia, de repente, dará consigo mesma e não se perderá nunca mais. Antes, terá que dar voltas e voltas até tomar o caminho certo, talvez demore um pouco.

People can portray me anyway they want because I don't give a damn. I am what I am. And until those people touch me close enough, they'll never know who I am. If they don't want to see me in this interview or a newspaper article, and say "what's the matter with this guy?" Let'em say it. But don't you analyze me and don't you tell me what I am until you get close enough to understand what I am. Then you can make an analysis of me, but don't you dare do it until then.

I'm really in no danger of being perceived as a famous movie actor!

That's right, you're not from Texas. But Texas wants you anyways.

His father thought he had a wond'rous wise look when he was born, and so he named him Solomon, thinking that if indeed he turned out to be wise the name would fit him nicely, whereas, should he be mistaken, and the boy grow up stupid, his name could be easily changed to Simon.

Royale's confidence tore something inside Honor. For a moment Honor hated her white skin, hated that this woman would fear her on that basis alone.

The bus had a name too. Elaborately painted letters across the back declared it to be "Old but Sexy." It occurred to me that as I slipped inexorably into middle age, such a title might be the best I myself could hope for.