Milan Kundera Quotes

We are not strangers to ourselves, we only try to be.

And identity is funny being yourself is funny as you are never yourself to yourself except as you remember yourself and then of course you do not believe yourself.

That's the way I feel, at least: like there's a real me and a reflection of me, and I have no way of telling which is which.

In photos, I don't know who the real me is - it's all pretend, just pretend. There's not much of myself in my work. If I'm looking in the mirror and I'm working, I'm looking at my make-up and my hair. It's not the same as looking at myself.

After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he thinks he is, or what other people think he is, still less what his passport says he is. And it is fortunate for most of us that we are mistaken. We do not generally know what is good for us. That is because, in St. Bernard's language, our true personality has been concealed under the 'disguise' of a false self, the ego, whom we tend to worship in place of God.

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

I look back at old photographs and videotapes, and I go, Who was I trying to be? Who was I doing this for?

I'd reached a point where there was a direct conflict between what I was trying to be and who I really was.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

There is your persona and then there's the real you. I was living inside my persona too much.

I'm never quite sure if I'm me when I'm dressed up.

And the idea of ourselves is our escape from the fact what we really are.

Faces ...I ...don't ...know ...the real ...me

Who Am I? Or (Perhaps More Accurately) Who Else Could Be Me?

I am never more myself than in my self-betrayals.

The secret is to have a sense of yourself, your real self, your unique self. And not just once in a while, or once a day, but all through the day, the week and life.

A person never knows their own true face. Everybody thinks that the phoney, posed social mask they wear is their real face.

Ironically, it was because I was raised as a Muslim in the South, that I realised the value in being true to who you really are. I've just got so many things going on inside. I don't know how to resolve all of them other than being true to who I am.

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

What you are is a question only you can answer.

If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.

I am myself a fabulous fake.

It's hard for people to see you one way, but you're really the other way, so it's kind of like, 'Who am I, who are you?' Sometimes, I confuse even myself.

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

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that's always existed.