Anita Brookner Quotes

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

I had to examine myself very thoroughly to find the right path personally.

I'm quite influenced in this by one of my heroes, Montaigne, who thought a man's real task was to render as honest an account of himself as he could.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

I think it's healthy to gain a perspective on who you are deep down, question yourself, and challenge yourself; it's important to do that.

I think you're always trying to figure yourself out and mistakes that you've made.

The feeling of self-discovery, for me, is perennial.

Spend time in your head and figure yourself out. Start taking note of all the things you do that you don't like, and then you're more conscious of it, and you learn.

I've been living with myself all of my life, so I know all of me. So when I watch me, all I see is me. It's boring.

I find myself fascinating.

You know more about me than I do about myself, that's probably true.

Half my life is an act of revision.

I love books, and all the best ones are people analysing their own emotions. You can learn from that.

Much of the time, we're transfixed by all of the ways we can reflect ourselves into the world. And we can barely find the time to reflect deeply back in on our own selves.

You don't find out who you are unless you work at it.

The autobiographical doesn't interest me. I could think of few things less interesting than rooting about in my life.

I am really puzzled to understand myself.

I have always written only for myself - to clarify things, to clarify things with myself, to understand in an inner way what is actually happening.

The only subject I know anything about is myself and I don't know that too clearly.

It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

One may speak about anything on earth with fire, with enthusiasm, with ecstasy, but one only speaks about oneself with avidity.

We never completely comprehend ourselves, but we can do far more than comprehend.

When I read profiles of myself, I sometimes think: 'I have spent my whole life struggling to understand my motivations and impulses, and I've never quite sorted them out.'

Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'