John Barth Quotes

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.

But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.

Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions. Decisions make us.

Human beings cannot be willed and molded into non-existence.

This life is not something that is imposed upon us; we receive it and work with it.

Who gets to decide what you want?

I am who I choose to be. I have always been what I chose, though not always what I pleased.

So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

It was scary. But it was so liberating. I thought, This is not predetermined - I get to choose. There are some days where I have to choose five times in a day. I had to make a choice when you called and the phone rang, whether I'm going to show up and be me, or whether I'm going to say what I think I'm supposed to say and get off the phone.

Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.

You don't have to buy from anyone. You don't have to work at any particular job. You don't have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose.

A human being is a deciding being.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

The biggest privilege I've had in my life is being able to make a choice. If you make a choice, it can't be a wrong choice because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I reject the idea that when young women make choices with which we disagree, they are acting without autonomy.

If you choose to do something, then you shouldn't say it's a sacrifice, because nobody forced you to do it.

Everything is something you decide to do, and there is nothing you have to do.

I think it is important to remind people of the extent of our free will.

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.

I am not God, but I am my creator.

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.

I pick and choose what I want to do at any given time, and what not to do, importantly. My agents, I won't hear about any offers or options.

It is the ability to choose which makes us human.

You decide the things that ultimately you do. You have choices in this world, and that's how I live.