Quotes About Introspection

Of the true mysteries of the universe . . . the one we may never solve is the mystery of other people. This is the underlying subject of all fiction--Who ARE you, and why are you different from me?--from a NYT Book Review review of Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane

The lives we live, he thinks, are filled with holes.

He told me to tell you that it's hard to be useful and sad.

He just needed to hear his voice from time to time to remind himself that he was real.

She doesn't like looking straight at things. She's a peripheral person.

The practice of celibacy alone was opening me up to a deeper sense of the way the mind-body connection works. I saw over and over that my mind and body could be filled with desire and that no matter how intense the craving was it would always pass. I didn't have to satisfy every desire that arose in my mind. I began to understand impermanence through direct experience rather than just intellectual theory.

Difficult personalities are a mirror for the places where we get stuck in judgment, fear, and confusion.

In the beginning we are all floating downstream. At some point we become aware that the currents are dragging us down and that we are no longer satisfied with the status quo of human existence.

you create your life in two ways: by the statements you say to yourself and others, and by the questions you ask yourselves and others.

Your mind has what you might call an automatic search function, which means that when you ask yourself a question, your mind automatically begins to search for an answer.

In the world of old memories, there's no room for visitors

Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, most relationships do not end suddenly. This is true of friends, romantic partners, and business associates alike. When someone claims to be blindsided, it's usually because they had their eyes closed.

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.

So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?

Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void. - You've Got Mail

And what people see the most is his silence, because some kinds of silence is actually visible.

dive inside your head, where you are safe. separate yourself from the pain. inside your head you can be in control and you can bear any pain if you know it isn't going to last. the key was figuring out when it was going to end

Be yourself. Be true to that, to your heart. Patience. See what happens if you step back instead of bounding forward.

Sometimes when you're trying to do a record too close to home, you can get really distracted.

My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.

It's true, there's a lot of melancholy in my music. I don't know why, I'm not a melancholy person. I've always been drawn to it. Ever since I was a kid, if I had an album I would play the ballads on repeat.

It was not the first time - it was far from the firs time - that Damask had suspected that there was something queer, something quite out of the ordinary about her mind. Most people had minds which dealt with one thought, and then another, one at a time. Hers very often dealt with two, even three, all at the same time." Damask Greenway from Afternoon of an Autocrat

Thoughts walk in uninvited

If I was lonely, if I was afraid of being alone, then why abandon myself? Why run to someone else looking to give myself the thing that only I could give? I wanted to escape myself because I felt empty, and the emptiness frightened me. But obviously, I was empty because I was always running out, running away. The only way to fill the emptiness was to remain, to take up residence in myself.