Jennifer Egan Quotes

I wouldn't be myself if I weren't always trying to be someone else. I only have so much time on this earth and I want to be as many people as possible.

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.

Part of the very impulse of writing for me is actually wanting to get away from myself.

L.A. is so isolated and unhip in a way; it gives you room to figure out who you are and explore more personal stuff.

I'm not going to become a costume version or caricature of myself; I like to morph.

I'm going to keep on finding out the kind of man I am through my music. That's the one place I can be free. But the reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

Great personal style is an extreme curiosity about yourself.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

You just get out there and be what you want to be. That's part of evolving and part of staying true to yourself - part of remaining alive in a real authentic, long-term sense creatively: not listening to what other people tell you to be.

'Shortcomings' was me figuring out who I am.

Why wouldn't you write to escape yourself as much as you might write to express yourself? It's far more interesting to write about others.

I discovered very early that it wasn't quite enough for me to imitate people.

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.

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.

All that I am is me. So I'm not really a poet or a writer or an actor or an activist; I'm me, and these are things that I do.

I think skating helped me find myself.

I want to challenge people to find out who they are.

Life is the most versatile thing under the sun; and in the pursuit of life and character the author who works in a groove works in blinkers.

I always try to improve, to find new ways of expressing myself, to keep looking for truth and originality.

My interest lies in my self-expression - what's inside of me - not what I'm in.

I didn't start writing so that I could more deeply know myself. I was bored of myself, my life, my childhood, my hometown. I started writing as a way to know others, to get away from myself.

When we are honest - that's my saying - if we are honest then we will reveal ourselves. But we do not have to make an effort to be individualistic, different from others.

It seems that different people have an idea of what I am, and what I should be. And then there's me.

I want to explore more sides of humanity and myself. That's what acting is about.