Don Mattingly Quotes

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

If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.

Writing music on your own makes you think a lot about your life. Who are you? Would you change anything about yourself? This is where it comes from.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

I think I surprise myself.

The world is a reflection of who we are and if we don't like the reflection, it doesn't really help to break the mirror.

I am ashamed every day, and more ashamed the next. But I will spend the rest of my life in this living space writing these notes, this journal, recording my acts and reflections, finding some honor, some worth at the bottom of things. I want ten thousand pages that will stop the world.

Writing in a journal reminds you of your goals and of your learning in life. It offers a place where you can hold a deliberate, thoughtful conversation with yourself.

In the best writers, the outward-reaching interest in the 'found subject' leads back at a hairpin to some uncomfortable inner recognition that the writer has journeyed very far to see; he comes home half-dead.

Half my life is an act of revision.

You may think me crude, and probably I am crude, but I am not so crude as I was, for I am clever enough to see that the girl of nineteen who thought herself a genius was only an unusual girl writing her heart out.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

I have always written only for myself - to clarify things, to clarify things with myself, to understand in an inner way what is actually happening.

It's not to late to... ask yourself if you really are the person you want to be, and if not, who you do want to be.

I was 20 years old and felt I had a lot to offer, even to myself.

When I go back and read my journals or fiction, I am always surprised. I may not remember having those thoughts, but they still exist and I know they are mine, and it's all part of making sense of who I am.

Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'

I didn't want to repeat my mistakes so I stopped, took some time out and started having therapy. My songs were bringing up feelings inside of me I didn't really understand, so I wanted to understand where they were coming from to help me be a better person and a better songwriter.

I feel like I've grown up a bit. I'm a bit more confident, and I've been reading more, and I've had a little more time to myself. I went on this writing trip to gather my thoughts about where and who I am in this world, and why we're all here.

I realized that I had to be honest about where I was, where I was coming from, and what I was trying to do.

You learn a lot about yourself when you have success for a while. Like, a lot of things that you think are really important aren't. But you need that process.

I always write to understand my place in the world. I can see myself and my life unfold on the page, and I can understand my strengths, my weaknesses - I can see where I need to step up a bit.

My goal is to get quieter as I get older.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.