Kazuo Ishiguro Quotes

A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people’s evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.

I'm always trying to figure out what my taste is, what my likes and dislikes are.

How you go about moving within the world you live in says so much about who you are.

You have to look yourself in the eye and ask, 'Who are you?' It can't be all about work.

Tennis is great, but it doesn't necessarily define me.

We are nearer neighbors to ourselves than the whiteness of snow or the weight of stones are to us: if man does not know himself, how should he know his functions and powers?

I know who I am. I have a very strong sense of self.

You really have to know who you are. It takes, uh it's not that easy.

I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And therefore I bid farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself: am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom Nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.

The only real person you need to know is you.

Blessed is that man who knows his own distaff and has found his own spindle.

All you need to do is know who you are.

Before you do anything, whatever it is, figure out who you are first.

Before you find out who you are, you have to figure out who you aren't.

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

I've come to believe that whoever I am didn't start on December 14, 1946, and isn't going to end on whatever that mysterious date is in the future.

I'm not interested in nostalgia; I'm interested in who I am.

You have to know who you are, if you don't you have nightmares.

People have to learn who they are - you can't have somebody else telling you who you are.

My problem was I let myself become known before I knew myself.

You have to assert something about yourself in order to be yourself.

I needed to be myself and find my own identity.

It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are.

What is interesting about me isn't that I am a mother, it is who I am. I love my family, but if I just talk to you about being a mother, it's boring. I am sorry, but it's reducing who I really am, and it's really boring.