Italo Calvino Quotes

There's nothing harder than defining oneself.

Some people want to define themselves, and they should, as it's part of their identity. For me personally, I've never really had a label for myself.

The first question in any interactive process with another is: now Who Am I, and Who Do I Want to Be, in relationship to that?

Self-definition and self-determination is about the many varied decisions that we make to compose and journey toward ourselves, about the audacity and strength to proclaim, create, and evolve into who we know ourselves to be. It’s okay if your personal definition is in a constant state of flux as you navigate the world.

Meg, when people don't know who they are, they are open either to being Xed, or Named

When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a coloring book, with the inside not yet completed. All the standard features were there. but the colors, the zigzags and plaids, the bits and pieces that made up me, Halley, weren't yet in place. Scarlett's vibrant reds and golds helped some, but I was still waiting.

People define themselves aesthetically at a very young age.

Carving out an identity for yourself is important so I'm trying to do that as well.

I have always felt that I am the sum total of my parts.

The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something.

I always like whatever I did most recently. It's the closest to who I am at the moment.

You can't ever put your self-definition in the hands of somebody who meets you for 15 minutes.

To be able to always have a super sense of who I was and my own real identity and be petty and seem informed and always thinking in thoughts would be great.

I don't have a set image. In fact, I would be curious to know how someone slots me.

Then, at some point, you get identified with certain things.

I've never viewed myself as 'just' a musician or singer.

If it took professional wrestling for people to recognize me as a person, then all the other endeavors I embark upon will explain me as a person, define me as a person, but wrestling will not define me.

Nobody else can tell you what you are.

I know what my identity is.

When we're growing up and being teenagers, oftentimes you try so hard to define yourself. You try to create an image of yourself because you don't really know who you are yet. And that can be kind of limiting because you forget that there are actually so many different sides of identity. And it's important to recognize that everyone is completely different.

What I do and who I am are two different things. And they always will be.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

I have this identity for myself as a writer and the only thing that can happen is that I chip away from it.

Most people, in my opinion, steal much of what they are. If they didn't what poor items they would be.

Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life; not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.