You are what you love, not what loves you.

Filmmaker Charlie Kaufman wrote this dialogue for his profoundly meta 2002 film "Adaptation," in which he inserts himself as the protagonist (played by Nicolas Cage), struggling to write the very movie he’s in. These words are spoken by his fictional twin brother and uninhibited foil, Donald, at a point in the film when all the clichés Kaufman railed against employing — such as characters learning life lessons — have come crashing in. But this uplifting message transcends its ironic context. It cautions us not to depend on external sources to determine how we feel about ourselves, but to accept and appreciate our own feelings as worthy on their own.