Russell Hoban Quotes

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 feel like the movie is reminding people of who they are, which is what I think all great art does.

I've never, ever labeled myself.

Some people want to define themselves, and they should, as it's part of their identity. For me personally, I've never really had a label for myself.

I don't even know who I am. All I know is that I am the sibling, daughter, sister, the friend of somebody, and I need to know who I am outside of that.

Rather than being taught to ask ourselves who we are, we are schooled to ask others. We are, in effect, trained to listen to others’ versions of ourselves.

We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people's definition of you.

When I take a role I wonder how I can use it to find out who I really am. I don't think I'm so rare a person.

Tomorrow you may bring about the destruction of your world. Tomorrow you may sing in Paradise above the smoking ruins of your world-cities. But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you - MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate upon that which I am.

Who am I? If this once I were to rely on a proverb, then perhaps everything would amount to knowing whom I 'haunt.'

Meg, when people don't know who they are, they are open either to being Xed, or Named

To find out who you are is like putting yourself on a psychiatric couch, but you have nobody to help you. Really it isn't easy. I was talking with my nephew this morning and he gave me one of the best quotes I've heard in years 'Personal style is curiosity about oneself.'

I'm fascinated by what makes up a self, how one becomes a self, how much is it an answer to others and how much is it an essence of self.

Whatever encourages people to become more interested in who they are and discovering who they are, as opposed to just accepting what people or things are saying what they are. That's fascinating to me.

To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is.

People think about who they are in the stillest hour of the night.

First you have to know who you are. That is the most important thing, as if you don't know who you are you will either get swallowed up or you follow some unsuitable trends and just become a nonentity.

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

We must be our own authentically unique truth, and question who we are, what created us, and what processes within us are alien and externally created.

Before you find out who you are, you have to figure out who you aren't.

There is no self-knowledge except historical self-knowledge.

I don't find myself intriguing.

If it took professional wrestling for people to recognize me as a person, then all the other endeavors I embark upon will explain me as a person, define me as a person, but wrestling will not define me.

You can ask me about my beliefs on things; that's cool. But I think to lump in and say, You follow this person, so then, wow, who are you?' Ask me who I am.

I couldn't put into a capsule one thing that represents me, I don't think.