Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

The name Zahra was to have been lman’s own name at birth, but a senior member of the family changed it to lman at the last minute.

You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven’t quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.

Acting is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them.

No, I’m not a French designer either. I’m from nowhere. I’m a European, old European is all I am.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

To live alone is the fate of all great souls.

The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it’s beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

I go to all these photo shoots, and each time I figure out something new about myself and what I want to wear.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

When you are young you tend to do so many things that are not needed. When you get experience, you know what exactly what works for you and you tend to do things that you want.

God has entrusted me with myself.

My lectures, based on Islamic teachings, were on various subjects. Some of the titles were, ‚The Intoxication of Life,‘ ‚The Purpose of Life,‘ ‚The Real Cause of Man’s Distress,‘ ‚The Journey to the Goal in Life,‘ and, one of my favorites, ‚The Heart of Man.‘ They contained important insights that spoke to something deep inside me.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

Anytime I feel lost, I pull out a map and stare. I stare until I have reminded myself that life is a giant adventure, so much to do, to see.

For a long time I was scared I’d find out I was like my mother.

To be admitted to Nature’s hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain.

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

I came to China to follow my star and to steep myself in the raw regions of the universe.

Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.

Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.

In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.

I really do feel part of America to my very bones; at the same time, I know that I come from somewhere else.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

I don’t look at myself as a commodity, but I’m sure a lot of people have.

I’m nobody, who are you?

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

Everyone, no doubt, remains first and foremost a man of his own country and continues to draw from it his motive force.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

The more I grow in popularity, the lonelier it gets. Because you don’t really know me. You just know this part of me. You fell in love with that. But it’s way more intricate than what meets the surface.

To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.

It’s getting harder to make decisions to just want to do something to work… I’m trying to find things that are extremely challenging or mean something to me deeply.

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

I’m half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That’s why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I’ve seen so many.

I don’t want to be called a point guard, but I can’t stop it.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.