Philip Roth Quotes

I have no personality, or I have three, depending on how you look at it.

There's no such thing as identity: it's something we have to believe in to make life more tolerable.

Once it has learned to dream the double, the self arrives at this weird crossroad and a moment comes when one realizes that it is the double who dreams the self.

Most people have a time-bound awareness. And the reason is they have sacrificed their self for their self-image.

I was pretending, the way I often did, pretending to have a personality. I can't help it, it's what I've always done: The way some women change fashion regularly, I change personalities. What persona feels good, what's coveted, what's au courant? I think most people do this, they just don't admit it, or else they settle on one persona because they are too lazy or stupid to pull a switch.

I know who I am. I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

The two biggest self-deceptions of all are that life has a 'meaning'and each of us is unique.

But which was the real me? Let me be perfectly honest: I was a man of many faces. (p.33)

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

In a way, you kind of get caught up in whatever image of yourself you think is out there.

Once I looked into a mirror at my face I felt like it was completely convincing. I was Salieri.

I can't stand outside myself and be anybody else.

Like, that was weird in 'Hamlet 2,' because I played myself there, fully myself, but then I realized, 'Oh, I'm not playing myself. I'm some weird version of myself.' So as an actress, you're always playing something, I don't even know who I am, how could I become me? I don't know what that is.

Dandyism is a lie which reveals the truth, and the truth is that we are what we pretend to be.

I am myself a fabulous fake.

If I am what I have and if I lose what I have who then am I?

I feel more comfortable when I'm somebody else, I think. When I'm taking a picture as myself, the whole idea of taking a headshot, to me, feels very false.

In all my years as an actor, I had never been me - I had always hidden behind my glasses, mustaches and funny voices.

And in fact, I think one of the best guides to telling you who you are, and I think children use it all the time for this purpose, is fantasy.

If your sense of self is destabilised, to imagine being another becomes pretty easy.

At least when you're acting you can be someone. In front of the camera you have to be yourself. And who am I?

You don't realize how much a part of your character is part of yourself until you are no longer playing that character.

Yeah, well my name is Bai Ling. That means white spirit, and I really feel like sometimes I'm not existing.

Real life? Well, I just hope mine isn't investigated. They might find that I don't really exist - that I'm just a hologram.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.