Chuck D Quotes

You have not known what you are - you have slumber'd upon yourself all your life; Your eye-lids have been the same as closed most of the time; What you have done returns already in mockeries; Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return? The mockeries are not you; Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk.

Everything intercepts us from ourselves.

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves.

If anyone is unwilling to descend into himself, because this is too painful, he will remain superficial in his writing. . . If I perform to myself, then it’s this that the style expresses. And then the style cannot be my own. If you are unwilling to know what you are, your writing is a form of deceit.

I am still a person with a sense of superficiality that I'm trying to challenge.

When people don't have any curiosity about themselves, that is always a bad sign.

In my book, I was trying to get into my own soul.

I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.

I like to read my diary occasionally to remind myself what a miserable, alienated old sod I used to be.

We can all afford to do a little soul-searching about the choices we make and the way we live our lives, but sometimes searching one's soul doesn't provide the answers we seek.

I looked into that empty bottle and I saw myself.

In my personal life, I am very contemplative.

I wrote an episode for 'thirtysomething,' and a producer said, 'That's really good, but what is it about? What does it say about you? What questions are you asking yourself?' I had never thought about that. This comment changed who I was, because it made me look at my own soul, the dark corners in my soul, and accept that dark side.

Only the shallow know themselves.

I'd be lying to you if I said I had not done some soul searching.

Self-awareness is something that we actually actively avoid.

We must at times search our own souls and discover what we really are. Our real character, much as we would wish, cannot be hidden.

Poor soul, she always knew everything about her neighbors, but she never was very well acquainted with herself.

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.

There was something special about being in a strange place, all alone in a mass of people even if you had just screwed up your life, or perhaps especially if you had just screwed up your life.

The greatest blessing is that, within all of this, I've still been challenged every day to question and show who I am.

Visit your soul; don't visit your past.

Time to go inward, man, I hope I have the nerve, to take inventory of the causes that I serve.

If a woman is to know herself, then periods of solitude should be courted, planned, and embraced.

I don't make changes to confuse anyone. I'm just searching. That's what causes me to change. I'm just searching for myself.