there are different purposes in explaining yourself. sometimes it is to answer someone's question or to correct them when they are wrong and other times they want to know you better, which calls for more in depth consideration. usually it will also depend on the context: the person asking you, your relationship with them, or time/situational frame. i almost always try my best to answer a question in relation to myself as i think it is important to give others an idea of where i stand as an honest justification of why i do what i do. i do try to make it as concise as possible when it is not a probing question and i often feel the need to correct them if they judge me in a manner different from what i intend. when someone is not merely just asking a question, but asking it as a means of getting to know me better, i do expound and often reflect the topic back onto them to engage in their understanding. unfortunately, most aren't genuinely interested. by this i mean, asking in the form of a inferring statement to point out my idiosyncracies. in the end, it does matter to me if i took the effort to make myself heard, but whether or not i have been understood is something i don't have too much control over and thus won't worry too much about. people who are genuinely interested will try until they do understand, at least to the best of their ability, just as i will try my best to explain myself to them when necessary.