First Person Narrative Quotes

“I felt old. Again. It had been happening a lot lately. I did not live the life of an old lady, but I could hear it beckoning to me, like a mermaid on a rock."

— Michelle Tea, "Paris: A Lie"

from the anthology Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache”
― Clint Catalyst and MIchelle Tea

“The truth is, I hate not being the first person narrator all the way through! To paraphrase David Copperfield, I don't know whether I'm the hero or the victim of this tale. But either way, shouldn't I dominate it?”
― Anne Rice, The Queen of the Damned

“Of course, if I write a first-person novel about a woman writer, I am inviting every book reviewer to apply the autobiographical label -- to conclude that I am writing about myself. But one must never not write a certain kind of novel out of fear of what the reaction to it will be.”
― John Irving, A Widow for One Year

“
Darkness.

It was swallowing me.

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see.

My limbs were as light as air. Reduced to atoms?

I was floating. I was at peace.

I closed my eyes and let it come. No more pain, no more suffering, just air. All around me, taking up the space of my body.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“They say love can last forever, but they never mentioned how quickly it can be taken.
he made thirty days feel like forever, and that was the best and worst thing about him.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“Today was the day. Today our routines were different; today we would know our place in the world.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“I was once thought that we could all be saved, that maybe we could escape or be liberated.
But I was wrong.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“They say that all things happen for a reason, and I used to believe that, until reason lost its meaning.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“I thought that I loved her. I really did.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“I had never given much thought to pain, to suffering. I never thought that bad things could happen to me or my family, and, as if it was a lesson, it all came at once.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“My life really sucked, didn't it?”
― Kaylie Fowler

“I grew to love August Bennett. In the small moments we shared.
He wanted to protect me, and I wanted to protect him, but I was afraid of the truth. That we were not safe, that none of us were safe.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“Today marks the start of a rebellion, of building a new, prosperous society; one beyond genetic impurities." Anthony announced.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“They say that death is peaceful, that you will be at peace when it is your time to leave this life.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“After a few hours, crying seemed useless, but it was all I could do.
All it took was a month; thirty days to fall in love and fall apart.
He would become just another causality, a consequence, a number.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“Saying you're the 'first person' to do anything in an indigenous country is insulting.”
― Gayle Kabloona

“The affordances of the first person perspective for audience engagement also create a significant challenge in that the Dark Other is always focalized through a White protagonist's eyes.”
― Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games

“But the truth is, I didn't want it to. All of that pain reminded me of what was at risk, what I could lose if I was reckless. I could have saved everyone, but I could not save myself.

Moments before the medics pulled the plug, I had realized that I had made my mark on this world. I had fallen so madly in love with this incredible girl, and I broke her heart. I had a best friend and the pleasure of being Clarissa's enemy.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“The truth was that I didn't want to die. I didn't want to. There was so much I wanted to say, wanted to do. I wanted to make the world a better place, I wanted to live a happy life with Maria.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“Back to the 1st Person: I’d even made up art theories about my inability to use it. That I’d chosen film and theater, two artforms built entirely on collisions, that only reach their meanings through collision, because I couldn’t ever believe in the integrity/supremacy of the 1st Person (my own). That in order to write 1st Person narrative there needs to be a fixed self or persona and by refusing to believe in this I was merging with the fragmented reality of the time. But now I think okay, that’s right, there’s no fixed point of self but it exists & by writing you can somehow chart that movement. That maybe 1st Person writing’s just as fragmentary as more a-personal collage, it’s just more serious: bringing change & fragmentation closer, bringing it down to where you really are.”
― Chris Kraus, I Love Dick