Attributed to Alan Watts
«Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.»
Misattributed
Verdict
It is not in Alan Watts's work
Widely circulated online under Watts's name. It expresses an image he used in lectures (the eye that cannot see itself, teeth that cannot bite themselves), but it has not been located in this wording in any of his published books; it may paraphrase a talk.
What they did say
Verified words of Alan Watts
«If you get the message, hang up the phone.»
The Joyous Cosmology, ed. Vintage 1970, p. 26 (sobre los psicodélicos como instrumentos)
«the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination»
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), cap. 1
«The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.»
The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951), cap. 3