Zadie Smith Quotes

When I was younger, I was looking for this magic meaning of life.

I do find that I tend to write about big questions. Why are we here? What are we doing? How do we relate to each other?

All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don't discover why.

Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end?

I've always asked myself since I was young, what is my duty on this planet? What am I there for? Just to hang around? Everybody must have some purpose.

The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation.

It takes a well-spent lifetime, and perhaps more, to crystalize in us that for which we exist.

Life is a great gift, and as we reach years of discretion, most of us naturally ask ourselves what should be the main object of our existence.

What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.

"What do you want out of life?" I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls.

The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.

If there's a reason for the way that life is I'd like to find it. After all, who's life is it?

Every kid goes to school full of questions about meaning. You know, 'What's my place in the universe? What does it mean to be a human being? What are human beings?' Existing courses cannot help you answer those questions. They can't even help you ask them.

Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love.

Mother Teresa was asked what was the meaning of life, and she said to help other people, and I thought, 'What a strange thing to say' - but maybe it's the right thing to say.

If I stayed in this game for individual achievements, I don't think I'd still be playing.

It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.

The whole of science, and one is tempted to think the whole of the life of any thinking man, is trying to come to terms with the relationship between yourself and the natural world. Why are you here, and how do you fit in, and what's it all about.

I feel like I've grown up a bit. I'm a bit more confident, and I've been reading more, and I've had a little more time to myself. I went on this writing trip to gather my thoughts about where and who I am in this world, and why we're all here.

Maybe I am looking for the reason why I exist.

After a point of time, when you get success and fame, money and everything, the purpose of life has to be redefined. For me, I think that purpose is to build bridges. Artists can do that very easily, more than politicians.

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.

I feel everyone is put here for a reason. Everyone has a calling. I always thought my real calling was to help other people.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.