Bob Schieffer Quotes

I don't remember a time when I didn't define myself as a writer.

I'm always interested in how people, myself included, have ideas of themselves, of how they thought they would be, or of how they want to be seen. And the older you get, the world keeps telling you different things about yourself. And how people either adjust to those things and let go of adolescent notions. Or they dig in deeper.

I mean, I don't even think of myself as a musician, really.

Most of what we say about ourselves is a wonderful piece of storytelling.

Then, at some point, you get identified with certain things.

I think everyone self-mythologizes.

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.

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.

As we grow up, we're constantly defining ourselves. In my case: Caucasian, male, born in Iowa, live in Boston, Zen Buddhist, good at learning languages. With countless labels, I build up this creation I call my self.

In a sense who you are has always been a story that you told to yourself. Now your self is a story that you tell to others.

I have this identity for myself as a writer and the only thing that can happen is that I chip away from it.

Ego is simply an idea of who you are that you carry around with you.

I mean one of the things about being alone is that you've no people to define yourself off, I mean, people are like all-round mirrors, because let's face it, we don't often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway, do we.

I don't really know what my personality is anyway. I don't really have one.

The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?'

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

In a way, you kind of get caught up in whatever image of yourself you think is out there.

I don't think anybody's quite accurately branded me. I'm not sure I could do it myself.

Everything you think about yourself, everything you believe about yourself, is because you learned it.

People in life take on certain stories and say, 'I'm going to be defined by this story and I'm going to live up to every inch of this story.' Sometimes you realize the story isn't fulfilling you and in fact you're not living the life that you're given.

When I was younger, my father told me not to pigeonhole the way that I perceive myself.

It's funny, because I don't think of myself as a novelist. I think of myself as a writer.

You think you know who you are, and then other people have these other ideas.

I'm not only my films, but I'm pretty much my films.

I like to think of myself as a storyteller.