Mitchell Hurwitz Quotes

I've basically thought of myself as a writer, whether I was or not.

I know what my identity is.

He did not think of himself as a writer for the simple reason that the world had never allowed him to think of himself in this way.

I've always defined myself as a writer, I've never decided what it was I was gonna write. [...] I always fancied myself one, but I'm not. I'm so far from a writer.

I saw myself as a writer, a novelist, even though I was living the life of a mother and housewife. Writing was - and is - what I do.

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

Then, at some point, you get identified with certain things.

Some people want to define themselves, and they should, as it's part of their identity. For me personally, I've never really had a label for myself.

As we grow up, we're constantly defining ourselves. In my case: Caucasian, male, born in Iowa, live in Boston, Zen Buddhist, good at learning languages. With countless labels, I build up this creation I call my self.

Identity can be so gelatinous sometimes.

How do we identify ourselves, and how do we settle into other people's expectations for our identity?

I don't really do anything that isn't about writing, and I don't really know who I am if I'm not thinking about writing.

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

Early in school, they called me 'the artist.' When teachers wanted things painted, they called upon me, they called upon 'the artist.' I am not saying that I learned my name, animals can learn their names, I am saying that they learned it.

A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him...but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.

It's not a little thing to lose your identification and who you believe yourself to be.

I wasn't sure I was an artist, so I thought maybe I just was throwing ideas out for people to consider.

That's an interesting way to put it: an expectation of who you should be. More often than not, it's described as an expectation of who you are.

Better to think of writing, of what one does, as an activity, rather than an identity to keep the calling a verb rather than a noun.

I don't think I'm good, I don't think I'm a good rapper. I think a lot of people always want me to battle somebody and stuff like that which is cool, but I don't see myself as a rapper.

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

Are the details of our lives who we are, or is it owning those details that makes the difference?

Have you ever said, 'I can't do that! I'm just not like that!'? If you've ever used this phrase, you've hit the boundary of how you've defined yourself in the past, and it's affecting the quality of your present-day life. Ask yourself, 'Where did these beliefs about who I am come from, and how old are they?' Maybe it's time to update your identity.

Your first book already defines you, while you are really far from being defined. And this definition is something you may then carry with you for the rest of your life, trying to confirm it or extend or correct or deny it; but you can never eliminate it.

Why do people want to know exactly who I am? Am I a poet? Am I this or that? I've always made people wary. First they called me a rock poet. Then I was a poet that dabbled in rock. Then I was a rock person who dabbled in art.