Quotes About Introspection

Half of me is this wacked-out comedienne who will do anything for a buck and a laugh. Well, at least for a laugh. But the other half is a lot darker, sadder and more pensive. It's the dark side that feeds the outrageousness and allows it to surface. I think that's true for anyone with comic flair.

I prefer to focus on who I am as a person and what I stand for. We all want to look good, but I find it more rewarding to work on feeling good and going a bit deeper beneath the surface.

What I learned on 'To Die For,' I learned over the years that followed, when some memory from the shoot would bubble up to the surface of my mind, and I could see it from a new perspective. I would usually cringe when that happened.

On the surface I look fragile and insecure; you have to know me very well.

Beyond the beauty, the sex, the titillation, the surface, there is a human being. And that has to emerge.

If you actually dissect the lyrics in 'Motley Crue', you'll notice that there's a lot going on beneath the surface.

That powers my desire to write: the sense of how quickly everything on the surface of life can be cut away and you can suddenly be inside the most inner part of the most inner life of a person. What does it feel like there, and what are the regrets and sensations and longings, and what is the music of it?

In a sense, I'm always hearing music of some sort, whether it's people talking or surface noise or whatever, because there is no privacy. So when I'm by myself, I just kind of like to be and reflect, and I can't do that when I'm listening to music. Because it's someone else's reflections, not mine.

Shostakovich's final pieces, his quartets, are scratching the surface of another world.

This sense in which so much of who we are doesn't break the surface - our knowability to one another is always something I like to explore.

I think I surprise myself.

The grand surprise has really been the fact that being an author, which to me had always implied being a private person, actually requires you to be a public person as well, and those are two separate entities to me.

I like the busy-ness of office life. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that I love the solitary nature of writing. What happens is that you write when you're ready.

I find mirrors detestable; I dislike seeing myself. Of course, there's a mirror in the bathroom, but it's a magnifying one for shaving. Photographs are fine, but I don't like mirrors because they take you by surprise.

It's never a surprise to me that a job that I'm doing reflects what I'm going through or what I'm thinking about.

I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn that I kept a diary - actually, quite a number of them over the years.

When people meet me I think they're surprised to find out I'm not always angst-ridden.

It's true that it's a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.

Looking back at all the people I have insulted, I am mildly surprised that I am still allowed to exist.

When I was making 'Xen,' I was surprised at how introverted some of the songs were. I wasn't deliberately trying to go quieter, but I had to embrace it.

I know I come off differently than I think of myself. I'm always surprised by what people say about me.

I was kind of surprised to learn how controlling I am. I never thought of myself in that way. I think the root of the control issues is usually fear, because you want to know what's going to be happening at any given moment.

It surprises me that more people don't take a look in the mirror a little more often and assess their own relationships.

The thing that surprises me most is, you cannot change who you are.