“The difficult thing isn't living with other people, it's understanding them.”

“The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

“If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

“Perhaps; but I am a difficult person to live with. My difficulty consists in not wanting to live with other people.”

J.M. Coetzee book Summertime

“Passing time isn't a steady thing. People try to measure it, but some days seem to have years packed into them, and others pass in the blink of an eye. Some days matter, and others don't.”

Blue Balliett book The Calder Game

“Successful people do things, and get over with it, and leave others to live their life off it. I DO them. And then I leave it to others to live their life off it.”

Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality

“The reasons why I do things are difficult for me to understand and difficult for me to explain.”

Vincent Gallo (1961) American film director, writer, model, actor and musician

“It's not about having things figured out, or about communicating with other people, trying to make them understand what you understand. It's about a chicken dinner at a drive-in. A soft pillow. Things that don't need explaining.”

Ann Beattie (1947) Short story writer, novelist, professor

“It is so difficult – at least, I find it difficult – to understand people who speak the truth.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

“It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist