Quotes About Introspection

Aaron was uncomfortable and a little afraid. This, he thought, is how God might pray to his God.

Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously.

A man only goes and confesses his faults to the world when his self will not acknowledge or listen to them.

Down on my knees / I peel back the layers of the world.

I have spent myself on all kinds of things I have advanced much politically but I have written little and moreover have written it badly.

I write just because the fire of my emotion is burning. Had I not, I would not have been able to find peace.

I don't think I'm funny.

Some mornings you wake up and think, gee I look handsome today. Other days I think, what am I doing in the movies? I wanna go back to Ireland and drive a forklift.

I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn't understand what being an actor meant anymore.

It's funny, but you get to a time in your life when you think you have all the friends you will ever have.

The less people think of you, the more they will reveal to you or in your presence.

I miss the days when I was alone with my characters and no one else knew them except me.

I watched people like a scientist watches an experiment. Never did I feel like I was looking in a mirror. Always did I feel I was here and they were there.

She longed to feel something momentous. Sometimes her life seemed so little.

Her goodness had limits. She could have easily gone her whole life without knowing those limits, but now she knew exactly where they lay.

Alice would give anything, anything at all, to be lying in bed with Nick, waiting for a cup of tea. Maybe he got sick of making her cups of tea? Was that it? Had she taken him for granted? Who did she think she was, some sort of princess, lying in bed waiting for cups of tea to be delivered.

You suppose you are the trouble But you are the cure You suppose that you are the lock on the door But you are the key that opens it Rumi

about six months ago, after my fortieth, I started to feel so...the only word I can think of is 'bland.' Or 'flat' might be a better word.

We're all on our own. Even when you're surrounded by people, or sharing a bed with a loving lover, you're alone.

she tried to work out who she really was without people who loved her to reflect back her personality.

She felt detached from all aspects of her life. She had no time anymore to feel. All that time she used to waste feeling, and analyzing her feelings, as if they were a matter of national significance.

My point is that things become weird and pointless if you examine them for too long.

She remembered that raw sensation she'd felt after previous relationships had ended. For months afterward, it had felt like she'd lost a layer of skin. If she'd felt like that after those meaningless boys, what would she feel like after breaking with Nick? She'd been so cozy in the cocoon of their relationship. She assumed she got to stay there forever.

Or, just ignore it, one day you'll turn forty and you'll slowly realize you don't feel the eyes anymore, and the freedom is a relief, but you'll also sort of miss it, and when a truck driver whistles at you while you're crossing the road, you'll think, Really? For me? It had seemed like a really genuine, friendly whistle too. It was a little humiliating just how much time she'd devoted to analyzing that whistle.