Yann Martel Quotes

The older I get, the less I need. I wear the same jean shorts for the whole week. I'm not running to the store to get the latest bag.

There's no great desire to own lots of stuff - and I don't. You can only live in one house and drive one car.

Here's the thing that I think about life - if you manage to get into a space where you don't need that much, where the overhead of your life is not that great and you're pretty happy and relaxed without that much stuff, you are really liberated because you never have to say yes to something because you want another refrigerator or car!

I don't need that much to live - we don't need that much to have a wonderful life. I learned that from animals.

I know I've been lucky, but I'm not very materialistic - I don't believe in collecting many unnecessary things and I'm not into girlie shopping.

I'm not a very materialistic person.

The American dream is a crock. Stop wanting everything. Everyone should wear jeans and have three T-shirts, eat rice and beans.

I suppose in the back of my mind I was always one of those guys who had a disdain for money. It had a value if you wanted to buy something, but if you didn't want to buy something, you didn't need it.

I live a very simple life.

I don't shop. I haven't shopped in about four years.

I always prided myself on the fact that I could live out of milk crates forever. It was kind of my way of detaching from materialism.

He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself.

I'm not materialistic. I love clothes and all that stuff, but I don't need it to live.

We don't need an abundance of things.

I'm not a big consumer at all. I'm very happy with enough.

In my humble opinion, having tons of products and furniture and magazines and clothes is not luxurious - living minimally is.

I'm really not a materialistic person.

Rather than earn money, it was Thoreau's idea to reduce his wants so that he would not need to buy anything. As he went around preaching this ingenious idea, the shopkeepers of Concord hoped he would drop dead.

To this day, I am the least materialistic person I know, because my father didn't raise me to just go out and buy this or that car. The only reason I wanted to make money as an actor was because I'm passionate about food!

I'm not interested in building wealth, which is kind of naive and probably frowned on, living in America. It's something that people don't necessarily understand, but if I die poor, I die poor.

I don't have to live this lavish lifestyle.

I am totally unattached to material items.

My customer isn't wrapped up in labels and money.

Money is not everything. We don't need billions and trillions of dollars.

But now I feel off the grid. I feel that I am not part of the culture. And because I don't have a car I don't really go anywhere to buy things. In fact, I have been in a slow process of selling and giving away everything I own.