John Banville Quotes

I am definitely an individual.

I try not to define myself. Other people are going to do that for you anyway.

Nobody else can tell you what you are.

I want people to see me as my own person.

I don't feel like I'm a character; I certainly don't feel like I'm a gimmick. I am who I am.

Selfness is an essential fact of life. The thought of nonselfness, precise sameness is terrifying.

Maybe I’d like to be defined by what I am.

You need to be your own individual.

I can't not be who I am.

Our subjectivity is so completely our own.

I'm just like you, only I'm different because I'm me.

When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's difficult to find your own identity.

Everyone is being told by society to talk this way, to dress that way, to be this person or to be that person, and it's so important to just maintain a sense of self.

I thought of myself as an individual ever since I was little.

I couldn't put into a capsule one thing that represents me, I don't think.

I love tennis. But even if I become the greatest of all time, I still don't only want to be defined by tennis. I'm my own person. And I want to be remembered as I really am.

I don't think anyone could play me. It would have to be me.

Keeping your sense of self is important.

This is not me, WWE doesn't define who Ashley is.

I think, in the end, we are all our own individual person.

Because it's kind of great, being an idea that everybody likes. But I could never be the idea to myself, not all the way.

What is I? It's what you are, not what others make of you.

But I am I now; and so many other millions are so irretrievably their own special variety of 'I' that I can hardly bear to think of it. I: how firm a letter; how reassuring the three strokes: one vertical, proud and assertive, and then the two short horizontal lines in quick, smug succession. The pen scratching on the paper…I…I…I…I…I…I.

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

I was born alone, I'm gonna die alone. I have my own identity. I'm my own person, and no two people are the same.