Quotes About Resilience

Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.

Mr. Freeman: You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree,but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.

I was good at digging holes. It was the rest of life I sucked at.

She cannot chain my soul. Yes, she could hurt me. She'd already done so...I would bleed, or not. Scar, or not. Live, or not. But she could not hurt my soul, not unless I gave it to her.

Emma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough.

There's no point in asking why, even though everybody will. I know why. The harder question is why not? I can't believe she ran out of answers before I did.

Too much sun after a Syracuse winter does strange things to your head, makes you feel strong, even if you aren't.

I am not going to think about it. It was ugly, but it's over, and I'm not going to think about it.

Didn't help to ponder things that were forever gone. It only made a body restless and fill up with bees, all wanting to sting something.

We should teach our girls that snapping is ok, instead of waiting for someone else to break them.

If I run or breathe too deep, the cheap stitches holding me together will snap, and all the stickiness inside will pour out and burn through the concrete.

Killing people is easier than it should be." Dad put on his beret. "Staying alive is harder.

I pull my lower lip all the way in between my teeth. If I try hard enough, maybe I can gobble my whole self this way.... I didn't try hard enough to swallow myself.

When life sucks, read. They can't yell at you for that. And if they do, then you can ignore them.

They tied me back together, but they didn't use double knots. My insides are draining out of the fault lines in my skin, I can feel it, but every time I check the bandages, they're dry.

When you're alive, people can hurt you. It's easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It's easier to lock everybody out. But it's a lie.

I swallowed the fear. It's always there– fear– and if you don't stay on top of it, you'll drown. I swallowed again and stood tall, shoulders broad, arms loose. I was balanced, ready to move. My body said, "Yeah, you're bigger and stronger, but if you touch this, I will hurt you.

Make it bend — trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch — perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.

Can't escape pain, kiddo. Battle through it and you get stronger.

I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn't touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn't drown.

Yes it is, because you can only be brave if you're scared.

The trick to surviving an interrogation is patience. Don't offer up anything. Don't explain. Answer the question and only the question that is asked so you don't accidentally put your head in a noose.

I want to tell him that it's just a stupid car, but bits of me are scattered all over town; the graveyard, school, Cassie's room, the motel, and standing in from of the sink in my mother's kitchen. It takes too much energy to gather all the bits together, so I just sit there and watch him implode.

The bruises are vivid, but they will fade.