John Guare Quotes

Right after 'Raymond' I had a world-is-my-oyster attitude, but I found out I don't like oysters. I had this existential emptiness. 'What is my purpose? Who am I?' I had a big identity crisis.

I believe framing reality is one of the only ways we can ever be sure it actually exists. In that regard, I feel as though I'm still learning who I am as an artist.

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

I've always been interested in how fast-moving our identity is and that I've never been able to pin down who I truly am. That inspires me to write, because I feel like that cements me a bit, in that I find my identity in being an artist.

I'm on this search trying to figure out exactly who I am and what I have to say to people.

By the time I hit college, my secret shame was the reason I was an actor was my own words sort of dried up. I stopped writing. I stopped being able to form my own vision. That's actually what my first feature is about - looking back at two different selves.

My life is real.

Life's harsh. You can't escape what you are and what you project.

I think around 2015 and 2016 I ended up in an identity crisis, artistically. I didn't know what direction I was going in. I'm a perfectionist and I want to be truthful to my beliefs, if you know what I mean.

When the artist finds himself he is lost. The fact that he has succeeded in never finding himself is regarded by Max Ernst as his only lasting achievement.

Other people have faces; Susan and Jinny have faces; they are here. Their world is the real world. The things they lift are heavy. They say Yes, they say No; whereas I shift and change and am seen through in a second. If they meet a housemaid she looks at them without laughing. But she laughs at me. They know what to say if spoken to. They laugh really; they get angry really; while I have to look first and do what other people do when they have done it.

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change.

Life flies by, and it's easy to get lost in the blur. In adolescence, it's 'How do I fit in?' In your 20s, it's 'What do I want to do?' In your 30s, 'Is this what I'm meant to do?' I think the trick is living the questions. Not worrying so much about what's ahead but rather sitting in the grey area - being OK with where you are.

Yeah, I think everybody has the crises of questioning themselves at some point or other in their lives. Is this where I should live? The job I should have? The girl I should be dating? Is this the friend I should have?

I, at the age of 17 or 18 as a medical student, suddenly came up against a problem: 'What am I? What is the meaning of my existence as I experience it?'

Not sure of my place in the world (still up for debate) and not sure what I wanted to do with my life (not really up for debate).

I had moments of my actions and words not reflecting who it is I am - if that defines a punk, then yes, absolutely.

I sometimes truly despair at ever being meaningfully altered and affected by the things I claim are so important to me.

As a son of a man who pretended to be one thing for 33 years of my life and then was another thing, the questions of 'what is real' and 'what is not real' are very blurrily vivid to me.

I have to live in the truth that this is who I am. That's what I need to focus on.

I don't have dreams. How can I say it? I myself am a dream.

I feel like I've grown up a bit. I'm a bit more confident, and I've been reading more, and I've had a little more time to myself. I went on this writing trip to gather my thoughts about where and who I am in this world, and why we're all here.

I want to see, that's all. This is my life. I want to see.

I've always wondered, what am I going to do that's important with these stupid jokes that I tell.