Quotes About Identity

I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.

AT LEAST THREE YEARS ago, my fathers God stopped being my God. His church stopped being my church. And yet, today, because I'm a coward, I let myself be initiated into that church. I let my father baptize me in all three names of that God who isn't mine any more. My God has another name.

I couldn't let her come back whole and that, I think, really symbolizes her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn't leave people quite whole.

I wouldn't want to give up being what I am," I said. "I … I want to be ooloi. I really want it. And I wish I didn't. How can I want to cause the family so much trouble?" "You want to be what you are. That's healthy and right for you. What we do about it is our decision, our responsibility. Not yours." I

Frankly, it never occurred to me that I needed someone who looked like me to show me the way. I was ignorant and arrogant and persistent and the writing left me no choice at all."9

Is a pea cut in half one wounded thing or two?

It's wrong to assume that I must be a sex you're familiar with," it said, "but as it happens, I'm male.

I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. He had understood that once.

What is it?" she asked. "Flesh. More like mine than like yours. Different from mine, too, though. It's … the ship." "You're kidding. Your ship is alive?

Sometimes they need to prove to themselves that they still own themselves, that they can still care for themselves, that they still have things—customs—that are their own." "Sounds like an expression of the Human conflict," Aaor said. "It is," I agreed. "They're proving their independence at a time when they're no longer independent...

to be aware of a place where blackness was not a mark of slavery.

You aren't flawed. I noticed even before I went to my parents that there was a wholeness to you—a strong wholeness. I don't know whether you'll be what your parents wanted you to be, but whatever you become, you'll be complete. You'll have within yourself everything you need to content yourself. Just follow what seems right to you.

Human purpose isn't what you say it is or what I say it is. It's what your biology says it is--what your genes say it is.

I wanted to disappear. Instead, I grew to be six feet tall. Boys in particular seemed to assume that I had done this growing deliberately and that I should be ridiculed for it as often as possible.

Curt Loehr, the Oankali said, needed people to look after. People stabilized him, gave him purpose. Without them, he might have been a criminal—or dead.

I couldn't really let her come all the way back. I couldn't let her return to what she was, I couldn't let her come back whole and that, I think, really symbolizes her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn't leave people quite whole.

Chiedete a sette persone che cosa significa tutto ciò e otterrete sette risposte diverse. Allora cos'è Dio? Solo un altro nome per qualsiasi cosa ci faccia sentire speciali e protetti?

This would be so goddamn much easier if I weren't human," she said. "Think about it. If I weren't human, why the hell would I care whether you got raped?

We do what we do, Lilith.

The self must create Its own reasons for being. To shape God Shape self.

No one is who we think they are," I said. "That's what we get for not being telepathic.

Civilization is the way one's own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.

Poor doesn't matter as much if you can make a place for yourself and be respected.

She seemed to be able to turn the accent on and off. She tended to turn it on for comforting people, and for threatening to kill them.