Paul Auster Quotes

You just gotta live your life and do it your way.

I hate the idea of always having to interpret other people's ideas and thoughts and words, because I'm very independent and, I guess, a free thinker.

I hate to tell people what they should think 'cause I really have an aversion when people tell me what to think.

I like independence, I like creating my own world, not being in a system. There are more possibilities, I think.

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive.

I can connect with whoever I want to connect with in the world. And I can also write my own script. I don't have to follow rules. I can sort of just be unconventional.

You can wear whatever, be whatever, do whatever you want.

I appreciate individualism.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

When I was younger I was trying to do what I wanted to do, not what the game wanted me to do.

There will always be some people who think for themselves, even among the self-appointed guardians of the great mass who, after having thrown off the yoke of immaturity themselves, will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable estimate of their own value and of the need for every man to think for himself.

A people are free in proportion as they form their own opinions.

Children have their own mind.

I want it to resonate: there's no rule for how to live your life. You can do things your own way.

I always wanted to beat my own path.

I think everyone should be their own individualized person.

No rebellious heart is ever at ease with paths established by others.

No one tells me what to think. I think for me.

Dissent is the mark of freedom, as originality is the mark of independence of mind. … No one can be a scientist … if he does not have independence of observation and of thought.

I don't mean to say that I'm about to state my credo here on this page, but merely to affirm, sincerely for the first time in my life, my belief in man as an individual and independent entity. Certainly not independence in the everyday sense of the word, but pertaining to a freedom and mobility of thought that few people are able - or even have the courage - to achieve.

I leave you free to be yourself: to think your thoughts, indulge your tastes, follow your inclinations, behave in ways that you decide are to your liking.

The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men.

Forbid a man to think for himself or to act for himself and you may add the joy of piracy and the zest of smuggling to his life.

I will not live out of me I will not see with others' eyes My good is good, my evil ill I would be free.