David Byrne Quotes

You find out what you think by talking to yourself.

Doubt is crucial, I think, in every character I have ever played.

I start asking a lot of questions about my own life, and it's not necessarily fun, but it's a good exercise.

If you think the cause of your problem is 'out there,' you'll try to solve it from the outside. Take the shortcut: solve it from within.

I think this is what college is all about: self-examination and dealing with those questions of "Who am I?"

One of the goals of analysis is you become your own analyst. You continue the process even if you're not in therapy, whether you continue the process by walking down the street thinking about things or whether you continue the process, as I do, by writing about them.

I just want to live each moment, but it's kind of hard to do that when you are asked to analyze yourself constantly. But it's also good in that you are forced to think about things that you don't ordinarily think about. I think it's strange.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.

As I walk'd by myself, I talk'd to myself, And myself replied to me; And the questions myself then put to myself, With their answers I give to thee.

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

That inner narrative - the desire to understand the way I am - never really switches off.

A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.--What was that god thinking who counseled, "Know thyself!" Did he perhaps mean,"Cease to concern yourself! Become objective!"--And Socrates?--And "scientific men"?

It's funny because sometimes one doesn't actually consider these things for one's self until one's in a situation like this press conferece where one has to kind of think about it.

If you want to know what you look like, look into a mirror. If you want to know how you think, you should write

How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.

You need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and not come away thinking, "Hey, there's something wrong with this mirror."

I used to be weird about it, but I think sometimes you can learn from watching yourself and all the mistakes you make and try to continue growing. But I'm completely uncomfortable for sure.

I think that's foolishness on the part of the playwright to write about himself. People don't know anything about themselves.

It takes tremendous discipline, takes tremendous courage, to think for yourself, to examine yourself.

Self-knowledge leads to wonder, and wonder to curiosity and investigation, so that nothing interests people more than people, even if only one's own person.

First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors.

Get to know yourself. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all... Knowing yourself and knowing the facts, you can judge whether you can change the situation so it is more to your liking. If you cannot--or if you do not know how to improve on things--then discipline yourself to the adjustments that will be necessary.

It takes time to understand yourself, to go inside yourself and to question yourself and really take yourself to task. That's self-expression.

Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions, and our habits and tendencies.