Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·126 of 348
"I am, I am, I am."
They never said that.
What people say
"I am, I am, I am."
What was actually said
"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am." Esther Greenwood — The Bell Jar (1963)
Why it stuck
The three "I am"s land because of the sentence before them — the heart's old brag. Quoted alone, the repetition is just a mantra; in context, it's an observation about the body's refusal to give up.
The phrase is also misattributed to Sylvia Plath herself, rather than to her semi-autobiographical narrator.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.