Tara Westover Quotes

I felt like we had stories about family loyalty; I didn't feel like we had stories about what to do when you felt that loyalty to your family was in conflict with loyalty to yourself.

I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.

I would certainly say that my life, and perhaps human life in general, follows an intricate pattern of defining, declaring, struggling for, fighting for what we think of and treasure as the self. The inviolate self. This begins with our families: your parents are part of your cultural landscape, and they are also shaped by larger forces than them.

Throughout my life, I have grappled with my own identity, who I am. As a young child, I often felt ambivalent about myself, in fact, confused.

I come from an acting family, my father was an actor, and I had to fight my way and just create my own identity.

You can't betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.

I felt like I was betraying my family. But I knew that trying to explain my emotions in a movie like this was more important than leaving them unspoken.

Fighting for identity is something that is very much in my life.

A man's conflicts represent what he 'really' is.

I resemble the father I once hated.

I fought my grandfather like you wouldn't believe. I went my own way and decided to become a racing driver. I don't think I would ever have fought as hard as I did if my grandfather had been a reasonable person.

Can't get away from your own self.

I just feel like sometimes I'm a force to be dealt with. My talents are sometimes overused and also sometimes underused. It's not easy being me.

Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret.

Protect me from what I want.

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

I knew Henry Fonda was my father, but I didn't know who I was. They all thought of me as Henry Fonda's son. Unfortunately for them, they never got to know me.

In my marriages, I'd lost parts of who I was because I was trying to mold myself into what I thought a man wanted me to be.

There has to be a balance between power and vulnerability. That's something I feel I have in my own life, something I struggle with and - on a good day - like about myself.

There was a period when I had a hard time reconciling all the different parts of me in a way that I thought would make sense to others.

I'm a typical middle child. I'm the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody's happy. It's hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy.

I reproach so many things about my family, but on the other hand, I kept asking them to be my family.

I have become my own father.

The only one who can beat me is me.

I know it sounds pathetic, but I don't know who I am.