El-P Quotes

I think essentially the meaning of life is probably the journey and not really any one thing or an outcome or a result.

I, at the age of 17 or 18 as a medical student, suddenly came up against a problem: 'What am I? What is the meaning of my existence as I experience it?'

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

I had a moment a few years ago where I wasn't sure if I was acting for myself or because people expected it of me. A bit of a crisis of faith, I suppose. I did some soul-searching, took a break and decided I was going to live my life only for me.

What are we taking from people and what do we give is a life-long struggle, I think, for most of us. Who are we? Do we like who we are? Do we know who we are? Do we care? Does anyone care? That's such a big topic. I could tackle that in many movies. So could other people.

The purpose that you wish to find in life, like a cure you seek, is not going to fall from the sky. ...I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it's not just divinely assigned.

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point—ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.

The real joy in life comes from finding your true purpose and aligning it with what you do every single day.

I think the terminology I would use is 'a continuous process of reflection'. I've always thought of only two questions that have mattered to me personally. One is what is really needed in the world and the second is what's really important to me and how these two intersect. It's always been a reflective process - spiraling around these two poles.

It seems essential to try to find some meaning to life and I guess Jungian philosophy is the one that's helped me understand myself and the world more than anything else.

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it life will be valueless.

It's not like during your normal day, anyone says, 'How do having meaning in your life? How do you make meaning in your life?'

Without a musket to raise, a barricade to storm, a flag to wave, the question hit me in the face like the cold air: 'Who am I?'

I was actually looking for answers where I kept asking myself - what am I doing?

I was so intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn't living an interesting life myself.

Maybe I need to make a change, or maybe it's living here in New York or using social media or working in media and entertainment, but I feel like I'm constantly trying to maintain this sense of, 'Why do I do what I do?'

You spend 20 years doing something and when you're not doing it, it's hard to figure out what it is you're made of. Am I the guitarist in Slipknot and that is it, or do I have more dimensions than that?

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?

I know what really matters in my life.

We have a lot of depressed people in the world because they don't know what their purpose is in life.

Everyone goes through that time in their life when they're trying to figure out who they are, find their own purpose and their own way.

Losing It Some days I think I'm losing my mind. What seems so clear most of the time becomes a big question mark. Am I really the way I percieve myself, or is the person others see the truth of me? I wait for answers, but inside I know I have to go out and find them. And answers like knowledge, are not always where we first look for them.

Ten thousand million nightmares, temptation by the score, I used to get so high, and still I wanted more. You think my time is wasted in search of who I am, I tried so hard to kill the boy inside the man.

I feel that as much as I enjoy loafing, there is something higher for which to live.