Personal Reflection quotes

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

The great thing about the United States and the historically magnetic effect it has had on a lot of people like me is its generosity, to put it simply.

I mean, I wouldn’t pay more than a couple of quid to see me, and I’m me.

In my relationship with God, I’ve learned that if I follow a ‚formula‘ for how I spend my time with Him, then I’m just accomplishing a checklist of things I feel obligated to do to please Him. This makes my spiritual life more about doing what I need to do to fulfill an obligation than something meaningful.

People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve.

Mickey Rourke’s character in ‚The Wrestler‘ – that was my dad, that was my uncles, that was so many members of my family. It was the only thing they knew. And then they would end up wrestling for a hundred bucks, go to autograph signings for two hundred bucks.

I don’t consider myself to be that credulous.

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I’m using my own memory, and I’m using my collective memory.

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

During the 60’s, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement.

I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t ruled politics out.

Throughout my life, I’ve always been really close with girls and made friends with girls. And I’ve always been a really sickly, feminine person anyhow, so I thought I was gay for a while because I didn’t find any of the girls in my high school attractive at all.

I’m German in my mind, but from a Germany that doesn’t exist any more.

I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.

I think that I’ve had a very strange life.

In twenty years I’ve never had a day when I didn’t have to think about someone else’s needs. And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.

I have never kept diaries. I just remember a lot and am more self-centered than most people.

When I was two, a dragonfly flew near me. A man knocked it to the ground and trod on it. I remember crying because I’d caused the dragonfly to be killed.

The deep, personal material of the latter half of your life is your children. You can write about your parents when they’re gone, but your children are still going to be here, and you’re going to want them to come and visit you in the nursing home.

For me, however, that beloved, glowing little word happiness has become associated with everything I have felt since childhood upon hearing the sound of the word itself.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.