Eleonora Duse Quotes

Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds. Each man seeks those of different quality from his own, and such as are good of their kind; that is, he seeks other men, and the rest.

In the best writers, the outward-reaching interest in the 'found subject' leads back at a hairpin to some uncomfortable inner recognition that the writer has journeyed very far to see; he comes home half-dead.

A story about my life should not be particularly interesting, but it is: it's just about me and some kids who didn't know how to talk to each other. It's personal but not autobiographical.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

I constantly try to reinvent my sensibilities and my ideas. I enjoy some of the satisfaction that I get when I feel good about what I've done. But the process is quite lonely and quite painful.

Silence, exile, cunning and so on... it's my nature to keep quiet about most things. Even the ideas in my work.

I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character.

I have always written only for myself - to clarify things, to clarify things with myself, to understand in an inner way what is actually happening.

I'm always writing at night - things I would change, things I would do differently. When I write a note, it sticks in my head differently.

I have to remind myself constantly to not be antisocial, because I stay to myself a lot. I'm a lot more introspective than my characters.

I didn't want to repeat my mistakes so I stopped, took some time out and started having therapy. My songs were bringing up feelings inside of me I didn't really understand, so I wanted to understand where they were coming from to help me be a better person and a better songwriter.

I don't want to get into autobiographies; I don't want to talk about myself.

I view life as a learning experience. It is not so much all about music; it is about what happens when you are doing the music.

People think my work is therapeutic. I don't see it that way. It's not like I'm saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It's a parallel thing in me.

A writer needs a life of introspection.

Whenever you're writing something that's reflective, you have to put yourself through some sort of ordeal just to understand the way you're feeling.

Solitude shows us what should be; society shows us what we are.

Writing music on your own makes you think a lot about your life. Who are you? Would you change anything about yourself? This is where it comes from.

It's so funny because I listen to songs that I recorded that I didn't really know anything about at the time. Later on I'm starting to feel the songs. Sing them first, feel them later.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

Filmmaking is incredible introspective. It forces you to sort of examine yourself in new ways.

I'm just not that fascinating a person to have had all those lives that I've written about.

I am always writing to myself.

One of the things that probably drew me to writing was that it was something you could get on with by yourself. Publishing means going public. But the actual activity could scarcely be more invisible. And private.