Phil McGraw Quotes

I was stuck in the feeling that one did not--was not justified in being alive unless one was fulfilling other people's dreams, whether they were contractual dreams or the public's dreams, or fulfilling my own dreams and illusions about what I thought I was supposed to be, which, in retrospect, turned out to not be what I am.

I'd like to lose interest in myself.

Yes, what is it like? Certainly not like she dreamed. But maybe that's okay. We want what we want. At home, she works herself into a frenzy worrying about what she isn't--and perhaps loses track of just where she is.

I believe so many people live what I call that false identity they are living according to other people's expectations, associations, their experiences, the labels in life. And they buy into that.

She had for so many years been trying to be like other people, that she was now like nothing in heaven or earth.

I don't know who I am. But I do know who I'm not. I have occasionally tried playing people I'm definitely not, and that wasn't a very pleasant experience.

Once I looked into a mirror at my face I felt like it was completely convincing. I was Salieri.

So many people go through life, and they never deal with their own issues, no matter what the issues are - ours happen to be gender identity. But, how many people go through life and just waste an entire life 'cause they'd never deal with themselves to be who they are.

I'd reached a point where there was a direct conflict between what I was trying to be and who I really was.

In my early 30s, I started to realise I was avoiding something on a personal level, but also as a writer. I was in denial about who I was, and was trying to be someone who I was not.

You can't betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.

I see pictures of myself and I always knew that what I was feeling didn't look like that guy in the pictures.

I think I've always had a disconnect from what I'm supposed to be like.

When I was in my 20s, I thought I knew who I was. And then as soon as I turned 30, I realized that person has bruises and bumps and dark parts. And you kind of go, well, that's it. I'd rather embrace it than force myself to change.

When I look at myself, I see a person who strangely lacks what I consider the ingredients of a personality.

The woman who made those movies, that's not me. She's someone else.

I was a highly sensitive kid, sort of an old soul, and I felt like a lot of people in my peer group didn't fully understand me, or I couldn't fully be myself. I just wasn't engaged in a way that was fulfilling me.

I felt like there were two people inside me. I was trying to be somebody I was not, and I was frustrated that people didn't know who I was.

I don't know how happy I was when I met Sting. I always had this difficulty of not really knowing who I was.

When you start to realise how much of what you've constructed of yourself is based on deception and lies, that is a horrifying realisation.

We can all tend to get caught up in the complications of life that we create; we live life for other people. It's a harrowing moment when you're confronted with an end, and you have to make the choice to live your life for you.

It's so easy to get stuck. You just get caught in being something, being special or cool or whatever, to the point where you don't even know why you need it; you just think you do.

I look at myself but I'm missing. I know myself: it’s not me.

I think that you can only be true to yourself. Nobody can live up to other people's expectations. You will always let them down. There will always be something they won't like about you.

What are we taking from people and what do we give is a life-long struggle, I think, for most of us. Who are we? Do we like who we are? Do we know who we are? Do we care? Does anyone care? That's such a big topic. I could tackle that in many movies. So could other people.