Quotes About Vulnerability

There is something liberating and defiant about going on stage and saying you are 36 and 13 stone.

I've realized I have not been completely honest with what I need and what I want and how I've been treated, and I haven't necessarily stood up for myself. I've not always stood completely in my power and spoken the truth.

I know every fight could be my last fight, and if that happens, that's not just a health issue, but I'll be knocked off that king's stool.

My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.

I couldn't hold it together today. George Clooney asked me if I was OK, and I practically collapsed. I couldn't stop crying, I had to go off sobbing like an idiot.

And, as if nature were protecting man against his own ingenuity, the reproductive processes were affected for a time; men became sterile, women had miscarriages, menstruation stopped.

When I'm not doing the show, and the work has stopped, I walk into a restaurant and I'm shy; yet, when I'm in the show, when people come up with their phones and want to take my picture, I can handle it because it's almost like I'm wearing an armour.

Every song is personal, but 'Ohio,' on my first EP, was on another level. I really opened up about the lack of relationship I had with my father. We stopped talking about four years ago, and I haven't had a father figure in my life since.

Cyberespionage and cyberattack is exploding from our adversaries inside our country. We don't seem capable of stopping it.

Once electricity and petrol and facilities and food stop, society stops. It's crazy.

You can have an ankle or shoulder injury, and in six or eight months, you're healed. But if the heart stops for a few moments, that's it.

I've gone up to a random guy in a grocery store before and said, 'Hi, I think you're cute. Are you single?' I'm not smooth. I just put it out there.

I've never gone back to the stacks after my book's expiration at the front of the store. Not because I'm above it or anything, but I'd be mortified if someone caught me looking for my own book.

One of the first times that I went into a book store and saw a bunch of my books, my impulse was to put them all under my coat and run away so that no one else could see them, even though, of course, I wanted everyone to see them.

Everybody has those stories that make them wince when they think about them silently. But as soon as you tell that story, it becomes a little bit less cringe-inducing.

Never be ashamed of who you are, your story, or how you react to situations. Don't ever be ashamed of how you communicate with people. Don't ever be ashamed of the person you are. Be you.

My mom used to call me 'Oprah' because I was always in a corner crying with somebody. I've always been attracted to storytelling around women's lives.

I've learnt that over the years, sometimes I was caring so much about how other people felt, I wasn't standing up for myself and I wasn't caring about how I felt even when people were straight up bullying me online.

Buddhist mindfulness is about the present, but I also think it's about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.

It's important not to lose sight of the fact people of all sorts are still putting themselves at risk. It happens to straight and gay, single and married. I have never been comfortable thinking of AIDS as something that 'other people' get.

The bullied straight kid goes home to a shoulder to cry on and support and can talk freely about his experience at school and why he's being bullied. I couldn't go home and open up to my parents.

Nothing scares a straight man more than a woman in her full glory.

I am a very sensitive person, especially when it comes to heart-to-heart conversations. I am straightforward and I expect the same from people.

Having a profile means you have to be cautious of who you let into your world, as you don't know if they're being genuine or not, but it's more that it can be a strain on your relationships.