V. S. Naipaul Quotes

I believe so many people live what I call that false identity they are living according to other people's expectations, associations, their experiences, the labels in life. And they buy into that.

I'm not interested in nostalgia; I'm interested in who I am.

I know who I am by now. And I am my own brand.

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.

I suppose it's fair to say that I am interested in the invention of self or selves. We're all born into certain circumstances with particular physical traits, unique developmental experiences, geographical and historical contexts.

I think everybody can identify, you know, with this sort of struggle to decide for yourself who you are, you know, and what your place in life is.

'Days Before Rodeo' is just the journey of me finding out who I am.

You have to be somebody before you can share yourself.

The struggle to excavate your true, authentic self from beneath the mountain of conditioning and ridiculous expectation is the epic struggle of your lifetime.

All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself.

Whatever you are made of, be the best of that.

There is nothing one fears more or is more ashamed of than not being oneself. Yet few people realize even an approximation of their true potential. Most people must live with varying degrees of the shame and fear of not being fully in control of themselves.

My problem with the search for the badge of real is that it trades your goals and your happiness for someone else's.

You should have the opportunity to be more than one person with different people because you have that within you. It's not like you're faking it. If everyone knows you so well and can always get a hold of you, then you're stuck to this thing that people think you are. You should have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. Because you do. Naturally.

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone.

When we're growing up there are all sorts of people telling us what to do when really what we need is space to work out who to be.

To me, the most interesting part of 'True Blood' is that the entire crux of the show is based on identity and finding your true identity.

You have to be someone.

What you are is a question only you can answer.

Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination, we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family, society and state in which we live.

I want to know who you are as a person, and then I want you to develop as a whole human being.

Everything we know by heart enriches us and helps us find ourselves. If it should get in the way of finding ourselves, it is because we have no personality.

I didn't start to work until I realized what it was I had to offer. I stopped imitating performers I admired and started just being myself.