Mark Vonnegut Quotes

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

Sports don't define us; it is not what we live for.

For me, the magazine was always the heart of what my life was all about, and the other half was living the life.

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.

My success is not who I am.

I really believe that the more distractions and fixes I remove from my life, the better I'll feel about myself. The biggest of those is Depeche Mode. It's the one marriage that survived, but I'm not sure it works - for me, anyway. Jumping on a plane to go somewhere else and be told how wonderful I am doesn't feel good any more.

'Who do you think you are?' That's the big one, isn't it? A flourishing life depends on how you answer that.

We are all good at things - a varied assortment of things - and we all desperately need to find out what those things are for our self-esteem. If there is anything young people need, it is confidence and an identity and a purpose.

I'm not searching for the meaning of life, but I'm looking for a meaning within my life.

I wanted to be a woman, first. And then singer. And then actress. For me, to me it's not as important what you do so much as who you are.

Tennis is great, but it doesn't necessarily define me.

Real happiness comes from discovering a sense of importance in one's actions and in one's life.

There's the part of me that's the organizer, part of me that's the artist, part of me that's the person who, even with those two things, wants to figure out what my place in the world is. How to engage with it and whether my life has any meaning.

You spend so much of your life basing yourself on what you think other people think of you. Then you realise that maybe one of the purposes of life is not to care.

...when they look at me, I so badly want to be who they see.

The more I did it-the more it owned me. It made things matter. It put a spine into my spineless life and that spine spread, into backbone, ribs, collarbone, neck held high. It was something. Don't say it wasn't.

My life is existing. Cinema is certainly not my life

Nothing will kill what you've been called to do more than comparing yourself to someone else.

"What is my job on the planet?" is one question we might do well to ask ourselves over and over again. Otherwise, we may wind up doing somebody else's job and not even know it. And what's more, that somebody else might be a figment of our own imagination, and maybe a prisoner of it as well.

Many people know what they want to have, but have no idea of who they want to be. Getting 'things' simply will not fulfill you. Only living and doing what you believe is 'the right thing' will give you that sense of inner strength that we all deserve.

Don't believe what anyone tells you about yourself.

My problem with the search for the badge of real is that it trades your goals and your happiness for someone else's.

What is so priceless about being the selves we were created to grow into is that it's impossible to do it wrong.

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

We're more than just our job titles or our list of professional accomplishments.