Screw pretty. I’d rather be strong. Pretty fades over time. Strength gets you through the bad shit.
There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.
I hit rock bottom, but it was also the moment when – symbolically – I used that very bottom to give myself a push and swim back to the surface. I re-emerged, gasping, weak and tired, but in front of me I found a raft. All I had to do was reach out, cling to it and make it mine.
When we seek to rule only ourselves, we are each of us kings.
Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.
Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.
Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience – or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.
There’s something brittle in me that will break before it bends.
You are your best thing.
Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy.