Philip Roth Quotes

I'll be me, but I don't like it.

How you define yourself is a major issue for young people and adults alike.

I always wanted to be more validated as a human being, as a person, than I was as a player. I think that was a really hard balance for me.

There are always moments when I think about leaving skating, but when I think about that, I'm not very smart, and I'm not very pretty, and there's nothing else that stands out about me besides my skating.

Too great a sense of identity makes a man feel he can do no wrong. And too little does the same.

Whether at work, at home or in public, we have been trained to believe that who we are at the core of our being is often unacceptable. As a result, we work diligently to live up to - and sometimes down to - what others have made us out to be, whether or not it is an accurate reflection of who we are.

I have no issues with my identity.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

Why in the world would anyone want to photograph an old woman like me?

Very early on, you figure out that you put your self-esteem in the hands of strangers. There's a different commodity. There's the Helena Bonham Carter that everyone thinks they know, who really has nothing to do with me. But you just have to let that go.

I don't like myself without a beard.

Lots of us when we're children believe 'oh well, if the world knew us as we really are, they'd know what wonderful, clever, brilliant, charming people we really are.'

Why am I a star? It can't be because of looks.

If you don't believe you don't belong.

Cartoonist was the weirdest name I finally let myself have. I would never say it. When I heard it I silently thought, what an awful word.

At some point, the pride has to be a part of the whole day-to-day oeuvre. It's part of who you are and doesn't need to be discussed anymore.

You know, either I'm too fat or I'm flavour of the month. I don't feel either, but maybe I'm both, who knows?

I was over-confident while growing up. I think when you look a certain way, you try and compensate by something else. I was always a strong child, was always confident, but looks never mattered to me.

I used to think of myself in terms of who I'd be if I didn't have this pesky old disability.

When you become a slave to a public persona and don't feel comfortable without it, it becomes a shield, and it shouldn't come at the expense of your self-worth.

MS doesn't define who I am.

I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not convincing as an American.

I think that when a person is insecure about who they are or who they want to be, then it translates on screen, and the choices they make are all about perception.

If I am not grotesque, I am nothing.

Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.