Emma Donoghue Quotes

I know what my identity is.

It seems that different people have an idea of what I am, and what I should be. And then there's me.

I've never, ever labeled myself.

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.

My identity will always inform my experience and shape my perception. But I am an unremarkable person.

I rejected the word humorist for a long time because I thought that it meant you had, like, a cardigan sweater with patches on the elbows, but now I'm old and I do. I grew into that word. I think at heart, all this time, I've been a diarist. I'm not ashamed of it.

A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him...but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.

I’ve always thought you are what you are and you shouldn’t pretend to be anyone else. But Oliver used to correct me and explain that you are whoever it is you’re pretending to be.

It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are.

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

You don't realize how much a part of your character is part of yourself until you are no longer playing that character.

I don't think a name defines the core of who you are.

When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's difficult to find your own identity.

Everyone always said, 'When you're 10, you'll want to be Elizabeth, or when you're in college.' And every time, I was was just like, 'No, I'm Beanie. That's who I am.' So I love my name because I think it really suits me.

People often ask me when I realised that I was different. Some people seem surprised that it's a question that I cannot answer. I was never told that I was different. I was always just Sinead; I was just like my dad.

I am who I am. I'm unique. I'm my own self.

I don't even know who I am. All I know is that I am the sibling, daughter, sister, the friend of somebody, and I need to know who I am outside of that.

I'm trying to know who I am and be honest about it.

My self encompasses a lot of different things.

In my very own self, I am part of my family.

Style comes from knowing who you are and who you want to be in the world; it does not come from wanting to be somebody else, or wanting to be thinner, shorter, taller, prettier.

I feel like so much more than my gender and so much more than my relationship to my body and my relationship to men. And, but suddenly you're sort of asked to be an expert.

In order for you to be yourself, you have to be somebody first.

We rigidify our self-image to portray a certain identity to the world, which is one of the key impediments to authenticity.

I think people who struggle to define themselves might never be satisfied because there is no definition. Living with responsibility is important, but I don't really think you have to grow up.