Dan Chaon Quotes

I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.

You never know what's going to happen in your life, and you never know what's going to happen in someone else's life either.

There's no adventure in knowing the outcome of who you're supposed to be with.

The choices we make within the boundaries of the twists of fate determines who we are

Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.

The self is our life's goal, for it is the completest expression of that fateful combination we call individuality.

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.

Because it's our choices that makes us who we are.

So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them.

I don't know if I was put on this Earth for a purpose or not. But I'm fairly confident that I'll be taken off of it for one.

Your fate is to be yourself, both punishment and crime.

We are all of us born with a letter inside us, and that only if we are true to ourselves, may we be allowed to read it before we die.

If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.

I don't believe in soul mates, not exactly. I think it's ridiculous to think there's only one person out there for us. What if your 'soul mate' lives in Zimbabwe? What if he dies young? I also think 'two souls becoming one' is ridiculous. You need to hold on to yourself. But I do believe in souls being in sync, souls that mirror each other.

I feel like there are so many people I admire for so many reasons that I can't look at one person's life and say, "I want that life." I want to make my own history.

No man or woman can live another's fate

Man must understand his universe in order to understand his destiny.

Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny. Your destiny can't be changed but, it can be challenged. Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recongize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight - perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.

We could call you an ambisexual. A duosexual. A—” “Do I really have to find a word for it?” Kyle interrupts. “Can’t it just be what it is?” “Of course,” I say, even though in the bigger world I’m not so sure. The world loves stupid labels. I wish we got to choose our own. We pause for a moment. I wonder if that’s all—if he just needed to say the truth and have it heard. But then Kyle looks at me with unsure eyes and says, “You see, I don’t know who I’m supposed to be.” “Nobody does,” I assure him.

Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves.

You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.

It is more important to know who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will change as the world around you changes.

Sometimes you find your path, sometimes it finds you.