Yo-Yo Ma Quotes

Every character is asking: 'What's my place? Why am I here? I don't want the answer to be 'Just because.' You find your own purpose. Each finds the reason to be here and how to contribute.

We all need a firm sense of identity.

Things can be really empty in this world, and I don't just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don't really understand: 'who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?' To feel fulfilment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing.

Everyone at a point in their life is struggling to find out who they are and where they belong.

When you know your not going to die, you have to ask yourself... What's the highest and best use for myself.

You do find a lot of your time in the West kind of searching for your place in the world - your voice, your identity, like, who am I? Like, what is my reason for being here, you know? And in that same way who am I to be partnered with, you know?

People will always try to find themselves and their place in the world.

People are people, and they want to know about their own experiences.

We have to really educate ourselves in a way about who we are, what our real identity is.

The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.

I always write to understand my place in the world. I can see myself and my life unfold on the page, and I can understand my strengths, my weaknesses - I can see where I need to step up a bit.

It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person about someone very different from you.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

I feel there's something about becoming a character that helps people understand themselves.

Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.

The marvelous thing about a good question is that it shapes our identity as much by the asking as it does by the answering.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

There is also a need that each should understand where he came from and what he is -- and what will become of him.

Never think you can separate who you are from what you're doing.

I can't tell you what your purpose is, that's got to come from you.

I guess I was just always one of those guys who asked those fundamental questions: 'Who am I? What's this for? Why? What does this mean? Is this real?' All these pretty basic questions. I like making movies about people who are self-conscious in that way, and are trying to feel their way through the world.

I just don't spend maybe enough time figuring out my place. Maybe I do in the world, but not so much in Hollywood.

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

Understanding why we are here, what we are supposed to be doing, relationships, and striving to do more other than play football - when you get understanding like that and apply it, it works wonders.

It's very important for people to know what gives them meaning. But it's hard for people to figure out if you're not connecting with yourself and taking the time to just be introspective and daydream.