But maybe this is who he really is, maybe we go through life never actually being ourselves, mostly never being ourselves. Maybe we spend most of our decades being someone else, avoiding ourselves, maybe a man is only himself, his true self, for a few days in his entire life.

Chuck Klosterman The Visible Man

A. H. Almaas Diamond Heart: Elements of the Real in Man

Rick Rubin The Creative Act: A Way of Being