Business Quote by Ruth Ozeki
““Together we'll make magic... Who had conjured whom? She seemed to remember Oliver suggesting this once before, but she hadn't really appreciated the importance of his question. Was she the dream? Was Nao the one writing her into being? Agency is a tricky business, Muriel had said. Ruth had always felt substantial enough, but maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was as absent as her name indicated, a homeless and ghostly composite of words that the girl had assembled. She'd never had any cause to doubt her senses. Her empirical experience of herself, seemed trustworthy enough, but now in the dark, at four in the morning, she wasn't so sure.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, 2013
Identity and agency are fluid; self‑perception can be unreliable, especially under doubt.
In simple terms: Who we are can be uncertain; agency is complex.
Key Takeaway
Question assumptions about self and agency.
Themes
identity
agency
self‑doubt
reality
creation
Mood
mysterious
introspective
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- writing
- therapy
- creative collaboration
- nighttime introspection
Key Concepts
philosophy
psychology
literature
Questions to Reflect On
- Who defines your existence?
- How does doubt affect agency?
A Different Perspective
Self‑knowledge can be elusive; external narratives shape us.
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)