Kiki Smith Quotes

I'm always thinking about identity. And the middle-school years are a time of exploring questions about who you are and who you want to be. For the first time, you see the world in a broader sense.

The search for a personal identity is the life task of a teenager.

Identity is something that you are constantly earning.

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

I have always felt that I am the sum total of my parts.

I'm really interested in stories about identity - who I am now versus who I used to be.

I developed a sense of self before moving to crazy Hollywood, which was really important.

You don't realize how much a part of your character is part of yourself until you are no longer playing that character.

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.

Our lives teach us who we are.

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.

I know what my identity is.

When we're growing up and being teenagers, oftentimes you try so hard to define yourself. You try to create an image of yourself because you don't really know who you are yet. And that can be kind of limiting because you forget that there are actually so many different sides of identity. And it's important to recognize that everyone is completely different.

Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle.

One thing we can do really well for our students is to help them figure out their identity.

Every decision you make - every decision that you make every second - is not a decision about what to do, it is a decision about who you are. Every act is an act of self-definition.

I have managed to establish an identity that is based on my internal self, and for that I feel tremendously lucky.

The most significant change wrought by adolescence is the taming of the ideals by which a person measures himself. . . . Love of oneself becomes love of the species. Conscience is pointed to the future, whispering permission to reach beyond the safety net of our ordinary and finite human existence.

In adolescence you have to separate yourself and establish your identity. So, being very independent anyway, I took charge.

Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.

Having an identity that is specifically linked to your age or how you look would definitely set you up for pain because these things will change. If we have a broader sense of who we are, our identity never becomes threatened.

There's nothing harder than defining oneself.

When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's difficult to find your own identity.

I am definitely the same person I was when I finished 'The Impossible.' That's one of the things I really strive to keep.

Childhood, young adulthood is fluid. And it's very easy to get labeled very young and have to carry something through your childhood and into your adulthood that is not necessarily who you are.