Patricia Highsmith Quotes

Obviously the idea of being human is a very human idea.

The thinking man always finds himself in a gigantic orphanage in which people are continually proving to him that he has no parents.

In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us.

To have humanism we must first be convinced of our humanity. As we move further into decadence this becomes more difficult.

It is part of the pholosophic dullness of our time that there are millions of rational monsters walking about on their hind legs, observing the world through pairs of flexible little lenses, periodically supplying themselves with energy by pushing organic substances through holes in their faces, who see nothing fabulous whatever about themselves.

What is there? I know first of all that I am. But who am I? All I know of myself is that I suffer. And if I suffer it is because at the origin of myself there is mutilation, separation. I am separated. What I am separated from -- I cannot name it. But I am separated.

As from a star I saw, coldly and soberly, the separateness of everything. I felt the wall of my skin; I am I. That stone is a stone. My beautiful fusion with the things of this world was over.

You can sit up here, feeling above it all while knowing you’re not, coming to the lonely conclusion that the only thing you can ever really know about anyone is that you don’t know anything about them at all.

I think I should be here alone to rethink the world - I do. I want these lesser humans gone.

I don't recognize my former self. Like I'm on the outside looking in at my life. Who is that guy?

Anybody who dedicates himself to exploring the human condition, there's always a detached eye that's watching. In any situation, a little part of me is observing it, to see if there are any raw materials to create something else later.

I was a little truth seeker as a child. I wanted more than anything to understand myself and also other people.

I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead - and that one was myself.

When we have ceased to love the stench of the human animal, either in others or in ourselves, then are we condemned to misery, and clear thinking can begin.

I was always such a people-watcher. I would sit on street corners alone and watch people and make up stories about them in my head. Then, all of a sudden, I was the one being watched.

What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.

If you don't ponder the end of the world on a regular basis, I don't think you're really human.

Human beings are interested in the human condition.

Being asked what animal you'd like to be is a trick question; you're already an animal.

Nobody knows me.

Being an outsider makes you a really good writer.

When we look at something that is alien to us, that is beyond our comprehension, what do we see but ourselves?

I don't associate myself with anything. I don't associate myself with where I'm from or where I am.

My natural state is an outsider, and no matter what group I'm in or where I am, I've always felt like I'm outside the group, and I've always been analyzing the group.

We may know ourselves, and yet even with all the efforts we make, we do not know ourselves. We know our fellowman, and yet we do not know him, because we are not a thing, and our fellowman is not a thing. The further we reach into the depths of our being, on someone else's being, the more the goal of knowledge eludes us.