Honest Reflection Quotes

You can't think decently if you're not willing to hurt yourself

Anybody who says, 'My childhood was completely happy,' is a person who isn't remembering the truth.

In all honesty I think that I've had a very normal life, even though I've been making movies since I was 9.

People aren't interested in seeing themselves as they really are.

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

A lot of things in 'Parents' I find very truthful.

'Welcome to the Dollhouse' is great. Even though it's about a girl in middle school, to me, that feels like the most honest reflection of what being a kid around that age feels like.

To mark all that I say in conversation, merely to beget in others, a good opinion of myself, and examine it.

We are living in complex, difficult times and I wanted Syriana to reflect this complexity in a visceral way, to embrace it narratively. There are no good guys and no bad guys and there are no easy answers. The characters do not have traditional character arcs; the stories don't wrap up in neat little life lessons, the questions remain open. The hope was that by not wrapping everything up, the film will get under your skin in a different way and stay with you longer. This seemed like the most honest reflection of this post 9-11 world we all find ourselves in.

The reason I like writing a memoir is because it isn't preachy.

You'll find truth in your looking glass, not on the tongues of men.

The greatest compliment I get about my writing is when people say, 'How did you know so much about me?' And of course, the answer is very simple: 'I just observed myself without sentimentality.'

The past is what makes the present coherent, and the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.

When I opened Milk Bar in November 2008, I was quite adamant about making sure the bakery was an honest reflection of life and food through my eyes. I had no intention beyond that.

One has to confront history honestly.

Rejection should ignite soul-searching, and the soul-searching must be absolutely honest.

Some of the presidents were great and some of them weren't. I can say that, because I wasn't one of the great presidents, but I had a good time trying to be one, I can tell you that.

One of the flabby lines you hear sometimes is, 'Speak truth to power'. Power knows the truth. It's speaking the truth to yourself that's the challenge.

Sometimes a sincere moment is the most surprising thing you can write.

I am keenly aware that in writing about my mother, I am writing about my aunts' sister, and that in writing about my grandmother, I'm writing about their mother. I know that my honesty about how my view of these people has changed over the years may be painful.

Romance is important, but to have a friend you can use as a mirror, who can give you an objective response, that's what's really important.

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.

Any woman or man who would write the truth of their lives would write a great work. But no one has dared to write the truth of their lives.

The written word is the only anchor we have in life. How extraordinary would it be if we had even three or four paragraphs written honestly about their lives by our ancestors?