First Person Quotes

• If I ever thought I wasn't the right guy for the job, I'd be the first person to fire myself.

  Andrew Mason

  Jobs, Fire, Guy

  "Groupon's Andrew Mason survives board meeting over CEO's fate" by Dominic Rushe, www.theguardian.com. November 29, 2012.

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• I write in the first person because I have always wanted to make my life more interesting than it was.

  Diane Wakoski

  Writing, Interesting, Firsts

  Diane Wakoski (1974). “Trilogy: Coins & Coffins: Discrepancies and Apparitions; The George Washington Poems”

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• Using a first-person narrator is simply a matter of hearing the voice inside yourself.

  James Lee Burke

  Voice, Narrators, Matter

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• It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person about someone very different from you.

  Doris Lessing

  Writing, Different, Firsts

  "Doris Lessing, The Art of Fiction No. 102". Interview with Thomas Frick, The Paris Review, Issue 106, www.theparisreview.org. Spring 1988.

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• I think first-person narrators should be complex, because otherwise the first-person is too shallow and predictable. I like a first-person narrator who can't totally be trusted.

  Rick Moody

  Thinking, Narrators, Firsts

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

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• Everyone eventually winds up writing about themselves - the problem is finding the best way to go about it. To write about oneself literally, in the first person, presumes a more interesting personal life and philosophy than most rock lyricists possess. John Lennon was good for one great album based on musical direct address, 'Plastic Ono Band.

  Jon Landau

  Philosophy, Writing, Rocks

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• Becoming yourself is really hard and confusing, and it's a process. I was completely the eager beaver in school, I was the girl in the front of the class who was the first person to put her hand up, and it's often not cool to be the person that puts themself out there, and I've often gotten teased mercilessly, but I found that ultimately if you truly pour your heart into what you believe in - even if it makes you vulnerable - amazing things can and will happen.

  Emma Watson

  Girl, Believe, Heart

  "Emma Watson Had Emma Stone Speech Envy Before MTV Trailblazer Award". Interview with Jocelyn Vena, www.mtv.com. April 15, 2013.

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• Perfume is a form of writing, an ink, a choice made in the first person, the dot on the i, a weapon, a courteous gesture, part of the instant, a consequence.

  Serge Lutens

  Writing, Choices Made, Gestures

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• I want to be the person that is the first person there and the last person to leave. That's who I want to be, because I think the road to success is through commitment, and through the strength to drive through that commitment when it gets hard. And it is going to get hard and you're going to want to quit sometimes, but it'll be colored by who you are, and more by who you want to be.

  Will Smith

  Commitment, Thinking, Want

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• In the first person, the readers feel smart, like it's them solving the case.

  Patricia Cornwell

  Smart, Firsts, Cases

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• No great president in the USA has been primarily a me-first person.

  Tim Kaine

  Usa, President, Firsts

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

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• Alexander Graham Bell was the first person to ever sarcastically say hello. Hellooo, I invented the telephone!

  Andy Kindler

  Bells, Telephones, Firsts

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• I'm very comfortable writing in the first person; it dives into the character in a way that's difficult if you're writing in the third person.

  Patti Davis

  Writing, Character, Firsts

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• First-person narrators is the way I know how to write a book with the greatest power and chance of artistic success.

  Anne Rice

  Book, Writing, Narrators

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• The first-person viewpoint is more enjoyable to write, because it lets me meander more freely, and it can reveal more of the character's self-delusions. Really all the advantages are with first-person, so I'm sorry I don't get to pick and choose.

  Anne Tyler

  Sorry, Character, Writing

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

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• Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular.

  Thomas Merton

  Self, Firsts, Superficial

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.7, New Directions Publishing

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• The first book we fall in love with shapes us every bit as much as the first person we fall in love with.

  Laura Miller

  Falling In Love, Book, Shapes

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• When I first got back from the war, I said, 'I'm gonna write the Great American Novel about the Vietnam War.' So I sat down and wrote 1,700 pages of sheer psychotherapy drivel. It was first person, and there would be pages about wet socks and cold feet.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Writing, Feet

  "A Vietnam Epic Uncovers Old Wounds: An Interview with Karl Marlantes". Interview with Evan James, www.motherjones.com. April 30, 2010.

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• I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror
 on a day you’re feeling good. 
I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror
 on a day you’re feeling bad.
 I wanna know the first person who taught you your beauty
 could ever be reflected on a lousy piece of glass.

  Andrea Gibson

  Glasses, Mirrors, Feel Good

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• As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

  John C. Maxwell

  Leadership, Trying, Firsts

  John C. Maxwell (2007). “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You”, p.162, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Marrying the first person who offers you a decent position in society. Love can wait.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Waiting, Firsts

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• I'm a strong believer in telling stories through a limited but very tight third person point of view. I have used other techniques during my career, like the first person or the omniscient view point, but I actually hate the omniscient viewpoint. None of us have an omniscient viewpoint; we are alone in the universe. We hear what we can hear... we are very limited. If a plane crashes behind you I would see it but you wouldn't. That's the way we perceive the world and I want to put my readers in the head of my characters.

  George R. R. Martin

  Strong, Hate, Writing

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• I will now claim - until dispossesed - that I was the first person in the world to apply the typewriter to literature. ... The early machine was full of caprices, full of defects- devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. ... He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.

  Mark Twain

  Character, Home, Two

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• Everyone is interesting except the narrator in a first-person story.

  William Kennedy

  Interesting, Narrators, Stories

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