Susan Sontag Quotes

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

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.

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

To know anything about oneself one must know all about others.

'Birdman' came from a very beautiful side of me, from a part of honesty and surrender about things.

There are different sides to me; I wanted to make a personal film but I would not want to make any film that does not reflect me in it. At least, not right now. I'm just too young to be doing that.

Writing makes you more human.

At the typewriter you find out who you are.

Training readers to expect a voice or subject matter from me would interfere with the reinvention I crave. At the same time, I feel almost too able to disappear at times.

I say it's easier to write for other people than write for myself.

'Shortcomings' was me figuring out who I am.

Always search for your innermost nature in those you are with, as rose oil imbibes from roses.

Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and Responsibility of our existence.

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.

I think I'm always drawn to projects that help me understand something about myself.

Seeing that I am so busily occupied with myself just now, I want to try to paint my self-portrait in writing.

Most of your suffering comes from the lack of understanding of yourself and others.

It takes time to understand yourself, to go inside yourself and to question yourself and really take yourself to task. That's self-expression.

I mean, what do you think creativity is? Nothing but self-indulgence. And the more self-indulgent it is, the more interesting it becomes. So I think that part of creativity is also falling in love with your own narcissism: accepting it, using it as an asset.

So I always think it's important to allow someone to reveal themself. If you notice something about someone that you like, it could really tell you something about who they are during a time of trial. The truth will come out.

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.

I am deeply in tune with my heart and core, and it's made me a better writer, artist, and most of all woman. It's made me more myself.