Milan Kundera Quotes

The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual - as we think so will we act.

Suppose that 'Unsolved Mysteries' called you with news of a long-lost identical twin. Would that suddenly make you less of a person, less of an individual? It is hard to see how. So, why would a clone be different? Your clone would be raised in a different era by different people - like the lost identical twin, only younger than you.

People are still people no matter how you cut it.

The best subjects are always people, who never fail to amaze me by their unpredictability.

A true portrait should, today and a hundred years from today, the Testimony of how this person looked and what kind of human being he was.

A voice is such a deep, personal reflection of character.

The voice is a second face.

People are funny in the way that they choose to express themselves.

Portraits are about revealing aspects of an individual.

Models are people. A lot of people like to make us some species that are not human; we are normal people.

The beliefs that we use to define our own individuality, what makes us unique - good, bad, or indifferent - from other individuals.

And then certainly, whatsoever you do - your character, your behaviour - is yours, authentically yours. It has your signature on it. Then you are not a carbon copy, you are original. The Zen people call it finding the original face.

How talented was death. How many expressions and manipulations of hand, face, body, no two alike.

A little personality goes a long way.

There are people who exist in this world not like entities but like the speckles or spots on something.

Character is a mark cut upon something, and this indelible mark determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Sometimes I get the feeling that we're just a bunch of habits. The gestures we repeat over and over, they're just our need to be recognized. Without them, we'd be unidentifiable. We have to reinvent ourselves every minute.

Your imperfections make you beautiful, they make you who you are.

Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.

Shall eagles not be eagles? wrens be wrens? If all the world were falcons, what of that? The wonder of the eagle were the less, But he not less the eagle.

I suppose it's too bad people can't be a little more consistent. But if they were, maybe they would stop being people.

... an artist is a person first. He is an individual. If there is no person, there is no artist.

And specialness - everyone wants it. But Jesus, is it the most essential thing there is? Most people aren't talented. So what are they supposed to do - kill themselves?

There are so many people who are clever. There are 8000 people at Princeton who are more clever than the three of us at this table. BUT, we have the ability to give something that they don't have...which is us.

A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot.