Mary Gaitskill Quotes

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

For a long time, I was just a football player, but I want people to see me for who I am.

It is part of me; I could definitely be that if I wanted to, I just choose not to. I mean, I am an actress at my core, and I think we're all a little crazy.

I rejected the word humorist for a long time because I thought that it meant you had, like, a cardigan sweater with patches on the elbows, but now I'm old and I do. I grew into that word. I think at heart, all this time, I've been a diarist. I'm not ashamed of it.

Did I express my personality? I think that's quite unimportant because it's not people's selves but what they have to say about life that's important.

I don't think a lot of people are like, "I'm just quirky!" Or if they are, it's a stage they're going through as they figure out who they are. I never felt like I was choosing roles that were quirky.

You cannot really be too concerned with what people think of you. You're on your own adventure of growth and discovery. So it's not always good to be who people think you are, especially if you subscribe to it as well ... which is easily done, because then you don't have to figure out who you are, you just ask somebody else.

In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.

Life may more than once call upon you to prove Who You Are by demonstrating an aspect of Who You Are Not.

I don't care what people think of me or for what reason they think of me. I don't feel like I don't know who I am to the degree that I have to change my hair to create a new me.

There's a problem which is when you're trapped in your own identity and everything is really you, then you feel less freedom to sort of explore who you want to be. So I think it's kind of something we're stuck with as long as humans are the way we are.

I’ve always thought you are what you are and you shouldn’t pretend to be anyone else. But Oliver used to correct me and explain that you are whoever it is you’re pretending to be.

I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.

You should have the opportunity to be more than one person with different people because you have that within you. It's not like you're faking it. If everyone knows you so well and can always get a hold of you, then you're stuck to this thing that people think you are. You should have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. Because you do. Naturally.

I would say that I'm finding my voice in more ways than one.

It's not always easy to identify your own voice. It comes with time.

I didn't start to work until I realized what it was I had to offer. I stopped imitating performers I admired and started just being myself.

It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are.

What is interesting about me isn't that I am a mother, it is who I am. I love my family, but if I just talk to you about being a mother, it's boring. I am sorry, but it's reducing who I really am, and it's really boring.

All that I am is me. So I'm not really a poet or a writer or an actor or an activist; I'm me, and these are things that I do.

I'm still very much Kate.

Failure is fantastic, because you meet yourself and get to know your limitations. This is how I express myself, and I can't do it any other way.

Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self.

Trying to give an individual a voice has always kind of been my mission in my life. As an actor, I've always seen that was something that needed to be done. You need to find that voice inside of you so that you can stand up and be who you really are.

Because for whatever reason, even though I want to stay home all the time and be left alone, I want to tell the world who I am now.