Heidi Julavits Quotes

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'm not going to become a costume version or caricature of myself; I like to morph.

Training readers to expect a voice or subject matter from me would interfere with the reinvention I crave. At the same time, I feel almost too able to disappear at times.

'Days Before Rodeo' is just the journey of me finding out who I am.

I'm not interested in nostalgia; I'm interested in who I am.

I want to challenge people to find out who they are.

I don't want to be anyone but me, but as a versatile as possible.

I think when you start changing things, you're not being yourself.

I'm trying to know who I am and be honest about it.

I am always experimenting with roles.

'Shortcomings' was me figuring out who I am.

A self is a frightening thing to waste, it's the lens through which one's whole life is viewed, and few people are willing to part with it, in death, or even imaginatively, in art.

I cannot say this too strongly: Do not compare yourselves to others. Be true to who you are, and continue to learn with all your might.

Can you every single day tell a true testimony of who you are? That's really what life is about.

Becoming yourself is really hard and confusing, and it's a process. It's often not cool to be the person who puts themselves out there.

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.

You've got to figure out what works best for you. That's the hard part. I know I can't play as stoic as Hogan, and I can't talk as much as Trevino. You have to be your own person.

I don't know whether I am different from other people. Perhaps I am. Perhaps no one has a personality, and people are inventing themselves in the context in which they find themselves.

I started getting more in tune with who I am by doing roles or even just being in a class and being around people.

I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

Fundamentally, you can never be someone else. You can only be less of who you are.

I have never regarded myself as this or that. I have been too busy being myself to bother about regarding myself.

To me, the most interesting part of 'True Blood' is that the entire crux of the show is based on identity and finding your true identity.

I like to be able to present myself in two or three different ways because I've never really wanted to rest on my laurels and be something that people expected.