Pico Iyer Quotes

Going nowhere isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

Never be afraid to sit a while and think.

I took a few months off after my senior year was over, and I prayed and tried to figure out what was my plan and my purpose. That's how I started writing songs and playing guitar just to get my feelings out.

I think the terminology I would use is 'a continuous process of reflection'. I've always thought of only two questions that have mattered to me personally. One is what is really needed in the world and the second is what's really important to me and how these two intersect. It's always been a reflective process - spiraling around these two poles.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.

You can spend your life competing in a world that talks too loud / You can lose your own direction getting lost among the crowd / Confusion - is it any wonder that the road ahead's not clear / Well you can try too hard to find it now I realise it's here

If you do not yet know where you fit, I suggest you try seeking it in receptive silence. I used to walk amid the beauties of nature, just receptive and silent, and wonderful insights would come to me.

In silence, we have an opportunity to reflect, listen, and gain new insights about ourselves. In silence, we can think, feel, and most important of all, breathe. When you seek guidance, understanding, clarity, or peace of mind, the first step is to master the art of silence and to rethink the value of solitude.

I was just sort of young and went with the flow. It wasn't like I was 6 and knew I wanted to be an actor. I was thinking more along the lines of, I'm 6. When I was 20 I realized, I've never really thought about what I want to do. So I took a bunch of time off, stopped answering my phone, stopped doing anything. I'm pretty sure this is what I want to do, but I needed to be sure. It took me about two years to come around.

Everybody has to know where they're coming from, what they're doing, why they're doing it, who they are. These are essentials.

Solitude is the place of purification and transformation, the place of the great struggle and the great encounter.

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.

There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire.

Until you know that life is interesting - and find it so - you haven't found your soul.

A celebrity life can be very fast-paced, and it can be hard to find meaning in it. I believe that everyone is looking for the answers, but the answers are within ourselves.

When I was in lower school, I graduated from fourth grade, and the principal gave us a summer assignment to take a 30-minute reflection period every day. And, of course, there were no cell phones at the time. She said to just think. And that's lost. It doesn't exist anymore. Just imagine being on a couch and just thinking.

I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself.

One of the things you'll discover... as you listen to your own soul is that you spend a great amount of your life trying to bring meaning to your own life. And, by the way, most people are not going to church, so the place they're actually trying to find meaning in their life is at work.

I'm always soul searching on a spiritual level.

Especially on unexpected journeys, you have time; you can figure certain deeper things out, like who you are and what you want. That's why I enjoy journeys.

I still don't know quite what I'm supposed to do or be.

I really do feel like Los Angeles is my home now and, as cliche as this sounds, I felt like I found myself here and I really know who I am now. There was a long period like I was drifting or floating through life, and now I feel like I have a definitive target - and future.

It's something that I had been pushing down my whole life. The search for meaning, I guess, the whispering of the soul.

The roles I think about and can't stop thinking about - on the subway, when I'm riding my bike, when I'm running - are the things I connect to.