Joseph Epstein Quotes

We read books to find out who we are.

No matter where you go, you always see yourself in the rearview mirror.

Each character represented a trait that resides in me.

At the typewriter you find out who you are.

In order to find yourself, who you really are, you got to be with yourself; you got to hang out with yourself.

A book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us.

What I dislike least in my former self are the moments of prayer.

No one ever reads a book. He reads himself through books.

Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me? When will my reflection show who I am inside?

I hoped that the trip would be the best of all journeys: a journey into ourselves.

Whoever wants the "I" to yield up its mysterious and tremendous secret must stop it from looking perpetually in the mirror, must stop the little ego's fascination with its own image.

Knowing what you admire in others is a wonderful mirror into your deepest, as yet unborn, self.

All of us must come to an honest, open self-examination, an awareness within as to who and what we want to be.

If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.

It's in every person's life, around 27 to 29 years old, the stars and the planets align themselves to exactly the way they were when you were born. You're faced with yourself. There's no running away.

I discovered myself!

I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library.

I don't think we spend enough time in reflection and introspection. We don't know who we are as individuals in this culture anymore.

Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I'm someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

A lot of my songs are just posing questions, because I'm on a journey to find the answers myself.

I'd be lying to you if I said I had not done some soul searching.

A lot of people go on this journey of finding themselves and then eventually realize that their true self wasn't on the outside but it's always been there.

It took living alone for me to really get to know myself.

The world is a reflection of who we are and if we don't like the reflection, it doesn't really help to break the mirror.