Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

I'd like people to understand that I do have some personality.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that's always existed.

The fact is that all of us have only one personality, and we wring it out like a dishtowel. You are what you are.

Everybody has their own story - it's who you are. If I wasn't five-foot, I wouldn't be who I am!

'Days Before Rodeo' is just the journey of me finding out who I am.

Meg, when people don't know who they are, they are open either to being Xed, or Named

Most people are other people.

I'm fascinated by what makes up a self, how one becomes a self, how much is it an answer to others and how much is it an essence of self.

There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior.

I wouldn't be myself if I weren't always trying to be someone else. I only have so much time on this earth and I want to be as many people as possible.

Unless you drop your personality you will not be able to find your individuality. Individuality is given by existence; personality is imposed by the society.

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

I have never regarded myself as this or that. I have been too busy being myself to bother about regarding myself.

I can't stand outside myself and be anybody else.

My personality doesn't interest me.

I'm not interested in nostalgia; I'm interested in who I am.

What you are is a question only you can answer.

I want to challenge people to find out who they are.

How could I have been anyone other than me?

It seems that different people have an idea of what I am, and what I should be. And then there's me.

I know who I am by now. And I am my own brand.

Figure out who you are.

The world can't tell you who you are. You've just got to figure out who you are and be there, for better or worse.

Chloe is really just like an exaggerated aspect of myself.

I think self-knowledge is the rarest trait in a human being.