Patrick Ness Quotes

I'm in control of the positions that I allow myself to be in.

All of us should do what we want and have to do. We can only limit ourselves.

I think you create your own boundaries, and you work within them.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

I've learned over the years that freedom is just the other side of discipline.

So if I think of something in my head I don't have to do it. If I can't do I don't do it, I do something else.

Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.

No one is free who does not lord over himself.

I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.

I think the real free person in society is one that's disciplined. It's the one that can choose; that is the free one.

Democracy substitutes self-restraint for external restraint. It is more difficult to maintain than to achieve.

What I say is the only thing I can control.

We can control how we run, and that's about it.

I made a decision a few years back to never again do anything professionally that I didn't want to do.

I can only control what I can, which is what I'm able to do as an artist.

The idea of self-government is foreign to Americans. ... Self-government is a form of self-control, self-limitation. It goes against our whole grain. We're supposed to go after what we want, not question whether we really need it.

I'm fairly in control and I don't like to flirt particularly. I mean, obviously if I meet someone who I think is hot, of course I'll want to flirt with him, But in general I don't use it in day-to-day life.

I sort of have to self-censor sometimes.

No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.

How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?

Everything in my career is my decision - every picture, every outfit. You get one chance at this, and I never saw myself as being a puppet.

I always thought, 'I could go the route of saying some controversial things and have it explode, just do it like that. But I don't do that.' But of course, it wasn't really up to me.

For me, I think that I don't like feeling pressure from outside sources. I'd rather put the pressure on myself and push myself to do it as good as I can.

I am not driven.

You can never control other people. You can only control yourself. I have definitely learned that.