A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.
You get rejection throughout your life and that shapes you eventually to what you become.
Man is a child of his environment.
Every bad thing that's happened to me has defined me, has shaped, has moulded me.
Nobody wants to get rid of their life experiences - you are who you are because of them, no matter if they're good or bad.
In terms of the way things went for me, I'm a firm believer that experience is what makes you. But I'm not saying it was easy.
It is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms the age.
Everyone is the sum total of past experiences. A character doesn't just spring to life at age thirty.
War was my university. Everything has proceeded from there.
Harvard has played an important role in my life. I was a student, Class of 1936, and I've been on the board of overseers. My experiences there shaped who I am.
My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.
We're all products of our own environment.
I was a lawyer for 10 years - a short time, but it molded me into who I am.
My mother has always instilled in us that we should carry ourselves with dignity despite the horror that came with the civil war. She also taught us that where you come from is very important because that's what makes you who you are. So for me, whatever I've gone through had profoundly shaped me; it has given me strength and unwavering faith.
What we did in our childhoods makes us who we are now.
I think you learn every day. You can't buy experiences; all these experiences shape you.
When I think of Paisley, I think of everything that has shaped my life.
I think all of us are shaped by the choices we make.
I am a part of all that I have met.
History does influence our lives - every moment. We never sort of live our lives in a linear fashion. We always have these memories and these images from our past that sometimes we're not even aware of, and they sort of shape who we are.
I really look at my childhood as being one giant rusty tuna can that I continue to recycle in many different shapes.
The role James Baldwin played in my life is incommensurable as stated above. He helped, along with a few others, to shape the man that I am today. My debt to him is invaluable.
My values are in my DNA and were shaped by my environment.
Just growing up in Columbus, which is such a special place, small town with a Fortune 500 company's headquarters, the extraordinary modern architecture. The experiences that I've had growing up in that very unique hometown has shaped me and always will shape me.
What you do, what you say, how you react to critical situations defines not just the moment, but it defines and shapes you.
