“Who is it that can tell me who I am?”

— William Shakespeare , King Lear

Source: King Lear

Last update Oct. 31, 2024. History

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William Shakespeare 699

English playwright and poet 1564–1616

John Powell (1645–1713) American Jesuit priest

“I am no longer content to be the scared, obedient schoolgirl. Who are you, a stranger, to tell me what I can and cannot do?”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

“I am the sort of writer who needs another form to tell me who I am and what has happened to me…I think all my novels are self-portraits, but there’s no one character who resolves me, or catalyses me, or is me.”

Maylis de Kerangal (1967) French writer

On writing in “‘What is a heart? You have an organ in your body and you have a symbol of love’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/28/maylis-de-kerangal-interview-wellcome-prize-writing in The Guardian (2017 Apr 28)

“He's telling me, "Your agenda is …" and I'm saying, "My agenda? I don't have an agenda and I'm not sure who I am. Who am I?"”

Kathy Acker (1947–1997) American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet

Kathy Acker: Where does she get off?
Context: KA: I've been going to this rolfer. I don't know why I'm doing it. It's like: "You will get rid of all your childhood traumas if you only go through this pain." Fuck childhood. People always say you do all these things because of your childhood. I'm sorry, but what really gets me off is the idea that you can just travel, and traveling is just like having an endless orgasm. You just go and go and go.
RUS: In that state, you lose your individual identity — and therefore your childhood. But the rolfer is trying to drag you back into accepting your singular identity.
KA: Yeah. He's telling me, "Your agenda is..." and I'm saying, "My agenda? I don't have an agenda and I'm not sure who I am. Who am I?" He keeps on saying, "You know what you want." And I say, "I don't know what I want."
RUS: If he succeeds in dragging you into a singular "I," that's the death of Kathy Acker the writer.
KA: Yeah, it sure is. But I don't think he'll succeed. He doesn't have a fuckin' chance. I'm just trying to fuck him. If he won't fuck, we're not going anywhere. He can't make me into this singular "I." I told him, "You gotta consider the pleasure principle — namely my pleasure." He didn't like that.
RUS: I always say, divide the word "therapist" between the "e" and the "r."
KA: Yeah. The rapist. Because they're taking all your childhood wonderment and reducing it to childhood trauma. He gives me these long lectures about how he's not enlightened and he wants to be an animal. Can you imagine long lectures about wanting to be an animal? What a fuckin' bozo!
RUS: When I was in college, all of the poetry teachers worshipped Robert Bly, so I had my fill of that shit.
KA: I told him about my piercings and he said, "Oh, you're a wild woman." Then I asked him if he wanted to see my piercings. He wouldn't do it.

“I am compatible exclusively with who tells the truth.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Sono compatibile esclusivamente con chi racconta la verità.
Source: prevale.net

“If I have to tell him who I am, then I'm not.”

Gregory Peck (1916–2003) American actor

Source: Explaining to a friend why he didn't identify himself to the maitre 'd who told them they'd have to wait in line; as quoted in 3 on a Toothbrush (1963) by Jack Paar, p. 274