Arthur Miller Quotes

I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier.

There's only one way for an individual to remain upright, not to fall to pieces, not to sink into the mire of self-oblivionorself-contempt. That's calmly to turn away from everything, to say, "Enough!" and, folding one's useless arms across one's empty breast, to retain the ultimate, the sole attainable virtue, the virtue of recognizing one's own insignificance.

One of my problems is to find the self.

The more successful I become, the more I want to remain like me, with my defects and insecurities.

I am what I am. I can't change that.

I'll always just be stupid boy, and I'm happy with that.

Every time I wake, I understand how easy it is to be nothing.

I am who I am, and there is nothing I can do about that.

I am what I am. There's nothing I can do about it.

You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office. You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself — it is too sad a way to be. Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of the naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher's ideals are.

I used to say things like, 'My name's not Al (Bundy), you know?' Not to the press, but to fans. 'My name is actually Ed.' I'd find myself saying that, and I'd think, 'Who do you think they think you are? They only know you from that!' And finally I just got...I don't know, I guess a switch went on for me, and I realized, 'This was the greatest job that you've ever had in your life. Why are you acting like an asshole?' So from that minute on, I kind of...well, I hate the word 'embraced,' but I just kind of went, 'Yeah, okay.' 'So you're Al, right?' 'Yep!'

Victory is sweetest when you've know defeat. Ability will never catch up with the demand for it. You pay for everything, even including speaking your mind (with or without one). Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

Feeling comfortable in my own skin has never been easy for me.

I like to spread myself out. Since I was a kid, I always recognized some void.

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

You can't respect yourself if you're afraid to be who you are.

I don't know whether these people are going to find themselves, but as they live their lives they have no choice but to face up to the image others have of them. They're forced to look at themselves in a mirror, and they often manage to glimpse something of themselves.

Bad things are not the worst things that can happen to us. Nothing is the worst thing that can happen to us!

This is who I am. I'm not perfect. I don't want to try to be perfect.

Over a long period of time, living as if you were someone else is no fun.

At some point, when I finished school in Zurich, I suddenly realised that I was nobody. I couldn't find a shape. Everything I was had been invented. Initially, I took it to be a fundamental conflict. But today I find pleasure in accepting that this thing called 'identity' is the true invention. There's no way that it really exists.

Nobody walks this earth thinking he's better than I think I am - I think I'm great. At the same time, it's so obvious to me that I'm nobody.

I'm okay with myself. I had times when I was 15 about 'Who I am?' and 'What am I?' and where I want to go, and that's behind me.

I'm the lamest lame duck there could be.

I'm asked all the time in interviews about who I am, and I know a few people my age who have a strong sense of self, but I couldn't say I know myself and sum it up and give it to you in a little package. I don't know myself at all yet.