Erving Goffman Quotes

You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else's point of view.

It's lame to say that I'm a normal girl, but I think I am.

I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.

I'm not unusual; it's the others who are strange.

I don't want to live up to how people expect me to be.

In the age of the individual's liquidation, the question of individuality must be raised anew.

I've never been more normal than I am now.

I try to be as normal as I can.

I think in society we tend to put ourselves in boxes and corners and restrict ourselves, and we constantly feel the need to not say this or not wear this.

Everyone says 'Anna Karenina' is about individual desire going against society, but I actually think the opposite is stronger: the way societal forces limit the expression of the individual.

Married, you're basically part of the herd, and that makes life easier in a lot of ways in terms of social support. But if you're not by nature a herd animal, you start to feel like you're passing.

I'm not a blender. I don't like people who blend into society.

People aren't allowed to be themselves in snooker.

If you live the way others want you to, you are called a nice guy. If you live the way you want, you are called selfish.

I think most of my life I have spent trying to gain normalcy, whatever that may be.

I'm sick of people putting boxes around everyone, telling you where and how you have to fit in.

Resist Impulses to Label Yourself with Descriptions that Limit You in Any Way.

I think what people see in me is one slice of who I am. It does permeate my life in the sense that I don't like to be told what to do, or how to be, or how I can do it. But I'm probably a lot tamer than people would expect.

It wasn't that she was different from all the other girls at Jackson. That was obvious. It was that she made me realize how much I was just like the rest of them, even if I wanted to pretend I wasn't.

Maybe I'm regular and the world needs to adjust?

You want to be yourself, idiosyncratic; the collective (school, rules, jobs, technology) wants you generic to the point of castration.

In short, whoever you may be, To this conclusion you'll agree, When every one is somebodee, Then no one's anybody!

Who are they to judge us, simply because our hair is long?

How I grew up, everybody was telling me, "You can't do this, you can't get tattoos, you've got to look a certain way." Now, I'm like, "Why?"

I keep saying, 'Don't change. Be who you are,' but society is really strong in their opinions.