Deborah Eisenberg Quotes

I suppose it's fair to say that I am interested in the invention of self or selves. We're all born into certain circumstances with particular physical traits, unique developmental experiences, geographical and historical contexts.

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

One isn't born one's self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people's ideas - and you have to work through it all.

My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn't matter as much as how I would be perceived.

Cultural background surely plays a part in shaping identity; but it does not determine identity.

At the end of the day, before basketball, before anything, I'm a man.

the identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute

Oh, no. I don't think I've ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap. Um, you know, I think that there's a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can't simply say, oh, like, "Tomorrow morning I'm gonna stop being gay." It's like saying, "Tomorrow morning I'm gonna stop being black."

I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely.

My children, who are almost two: watching them develop has made me pay much closer attention to how we become who we are.

I believe that who we are, and consequently the work that we make, whether we're visual artists or writers or journalists or filmmakers, is a projection of where we were born, what's been withheld or lavished upon us, our color, our sex, our class. And everything we do in life to some degree is a reflection of that context.

For me, you don't ever want to be defined by the color of your skin. You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That's what I've tried to go out and do.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

You're not just this person who's from your own specific experiences, but the collective experience of what makes you who you are because of time.

Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination, we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family, society and state in which we live.

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

Man is a child of his environment.

You are defined by who you are, by your choices in life, in all regards, not just in doing movies.

One doesn't want one's identity coerced.

I'm always trying to slip out of those labels everyone tries to put round your neck. We all have multiple selves.

It's one of the hardest things in life - choosing your own name.

I express myself through clothes, but clothes don't define me.

We are such a product of our upbringing and environment.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn't, then why would you say I am.