Jonathan Franzen Quotes

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.

When you don't inherit an identity you have to define it on your own.

Sometimes identity can be your salvation. It can be liberating to find your place in the world, but at some point, identity can hold you back.

One of the basic laws of human existence is: find yourself, know yourself, be yourself.

It's a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It's much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.

When a man no longer confuses himself with the definition of himself that others have given him, he is at once universal and unique.

The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself you will always be someone else. Become yourself.

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.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point.

We all want to be someone else but without ceasing to be ourselves. I think it's very important to defend this idea in real life too.

The world can't tell you who you are. You've just got to figure out who you are and be there, for better or worse.

I've never, ever labeled myself.

I don't like defining myself. I just am.

Everyone kept telling me, Just be yourself. Be yourself. I kept thinking, there's got to be more to it than that!

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.

Life is short, and there's something to be said for being true to yourself.

I'm trying to know who I am and be honest about it.

I started coming into my own at 30, discovering what's important to me, not caring what other people think.

Identity is not negotiable. An identity you have achieved by agreement is always a prison.

Each man's life represents a road toward himself, an attempt at such a road, the intimation of a path. No man has ever been entirely and completely himself.

I often think that at the center of me is a voice that at last did split, a house in my heart so invaded with other people and their speech, friends I believed I was devoted to, people whose lives I can simply guess at now, that it gives me the impression I am simply a collection of them, that they all existed for themselves, but had inadvertently formed me, then vanished. But, what: Should I have been expected to create my own self, out of nothing, out of thin, thin air and alone?

I find myself both as man and as myself something more determined and distinctive, at pitch, more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.

This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.

The greatest fear people have is that of being themselves.