Norman Mailer Quotes

I'm not always what I think I am, but I am what I think.

My great fear is that I'm the ultimate shallow person. I think about this kind of thing a lot, and about this phenomenon in our culture where people identify themselves with their interests. I've been trying not to think about it too much. It used to really upset me when people called me "witch house."

Who are you, Master?' he asked. 'Eh, what?' said Tom sitting up, and his eyes glinting in the gloom. 'Don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?

I was unrecognizable to myself; I saw my reflection in a window; I didn't know my own face.

I changed my name because it didn't fit with the way I saw myself.

I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!

I have no issues with my identity.

I can't stand outside myself and be anybody else.

You know, most people really don't know me.

I didn't want to have to deal with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as.

Nothing is stranger to man than his own image.

I look at that person and I'm like, That's not Kelli White. That's not who I am, who I started out to be.

I'm nobody, who are you?

I have a very healthy dose of scepticism towards what identity is and what personas are, maybe because of my life journey. Identity is something so malleable.

Nobody else can tell you what you are.

I've never thought of myself in terms of an identity. I'm always baffled when I encounter someone who gives the impression about being confident about a particular defined identity.

More people know who I am, but I don't feel any different within myself - I think that's the main thing.

I might not ever fully know who I am, but I also believe that I could be whoever I want, whenever I want.

I'm a human before I'm even a rapper.

To every man in the world there is one person of whom he knows little: whom he would never recognize if he met him walking down the street, whose motives are a mystery to him. That is himself.

I did a radio interview; the DJ's first question was "Who are you?" I had to think. Is this guy really deep, or did I drive to the wrong station?

I'm reminded of who I am, who I was, and who I'm supposed to be.

People think about who they are in the stillest hour of the night. I carry this thought, the child's mystery and terror of this thought, I feel this immensity in my soul every second of my life.

I see myself as anybody, as everybody; I'm not just telling the story of my life to give the reader a picture of who I am.

I have an apple that thinks its a pear. And a bun that thinks it’s a cat. And a lettuce that thinks its a lettuce." "It’s a clever lettuce, then." "Hardly," she said with a delicate snort. "Why would anything clever think it’s a lettuce?" "Even if it is a lettuce?" I asked. "Especially then," she said. "Bad enough to be a lettuce. How awful to think you are a lettuce too.