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.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  James Lee Burke

  Voice, Narrators, Matter

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  134 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

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

  Tim Kaine

  Usa, President, Firsts

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Andy Kindler

  Bells, Telephones, Firsts

  3 Copy quote

• 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.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  54 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

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

  Patricia Cornwell

  Smart, Firsts, Cases

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• Our job as writers and thinkers in the time is how to bring about the occasions that let people have that first-person experience - or the metaphoric experience that allows them to see human continuity as opposed to total threat, total willingness to do violence.

  Stanley Crouch

  Jobs, People, Violence

  7 Copy quote

• I think I'd been limiting myself in some ways just writing in first person all the time.

  Adam Duritz

  Writing, Thinking, Firsts

  3 Copy quote

• Matt Hock was the first person who showed me how much fun and how cool it can be to be a Christian.

  Aaron Rodgers

  Christian, Fun, Firsts

  3 Copy quote

• The stories on standardized tests don't have one author, therefore they can never authentically be in the first person. Imagine that! Everywhere, there are these tests that have been written by multiple people.

  Alejandro Zambra

  People, Firsts, Stories

  Source: therumpus.net

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always find something in common with my protagonist, particularly when I write in the first person.

  Emily Giffin

  Writing, Firsts, Common

  "Emily Giffin Talks Life, Relationships, and Her New Novel, First Comes Love". Interview with Laura Marie Meyers, www.popsugar.com. July 19, 2016.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• The first person who ever told me that happiness was work was this manic-depressive artist I knew when I was in my 20s. I was like, 'What are you talking about? Happiness just happens. That's even the root of that word. How could it be work?

  Ariel Gore

  Happiness, Artist, Talking

  44 Copy quote