Quotes About Vulnerability

How do you explain to someone that you understand their fear, then convince them that it's going to be all right? In my experience, the more you talk about what scares them, the worse it gets. There's not much to do but ride out the fear with them and try to keep them away from liquor and razor blades.

Janet keeps stabbing and all clever Dan can think to do is roll up like an armadillo and hope he grows armor.

When she shocks me this time, it's on the inside of my thigh, close enough to my balls to make them consider finding work elsewhere.

What if you get eaten?" "You won't let that happen." "Honestly, I'm annoyed. I just might.

You're going to protect me, right?" "Define 'protect.'" "You're not going to let it eat me." "Not all of you. That's a promise.

Home late. Be naked.

Are we in danger?" he says. "It depends on what you mean by 'we.'" "Am I in danger?" "That's the first smart thing anyone's said to me today. And, yes, you really are. So do what I tell you.

He wore his fear on his skin for everyone to see.

True confidence is allowing yourself to feel the full spectrum of your emotions. Sometimes you may feel strong, loud and powerful. At other times, you might feel quiet, insecure and scared. All of these feelings are you, and all of them are absolutely okay.

Being compassionate is actually very brave because it involves taking an honest look at your own self. In order to feel compassion towards yourself, you must be willing to face your pain instead of burying your head in the sand. That's the essence of bravery.

Going at it alone had been my badge of honor. How foolish. I confused silence with strength.... Shutting out others is weak and grossly unfair to those around us.

Everyone has something to hide. And if they couldn't hide it the world would be in a lot worse mess than it is.

We are all of us blue babies. At critical seconds, we all lack necessary air.

Even our best qualities can turn against us, and when they do we are usually the last to know.

You can't supply some other adult with something they don't have. Any more than you can sustain a relationship by offering up your sense of yourself as a kind of bribe. In the end, everyone loses.

Those with the softest hearts build the hardest shells.

It takes great courage to wear kindness as if one had never been hurt.

I once heard a writer say, 'It's easy to write a novel, you just slit your wrist and let it bleed on the pages.' She was right...Sophocles and Freud believed that we are defined by our fears. There's a lot of truth to that. When you share your greatest fears, your vulnerability, we bond in that honesty. We connect with each other and we don't feel so alone. And that's what books are really about. Connecting.

Why is it that we so easily confide secrets to strangers that we so carefully hide from ourselves?

There is one day that has brought me unspeakable pain, & the effects of that day continue to cover & erode my world like rust. I suspect that someday the rust will eat through the joists & posts of my life & I will topple, literally as well as figuratively.

takes great courage to wear kindness as if one had never been hurt.

To avoid love because of the possibility of losing it is like poisoning ourselves to avoid being murdered. Tabula

There's no such thing as privacy with Ian," Taylor said. "I think of that every time I shower," Nichelle said. "It doesn't matter if you're showering," I said. "He can see through your clothes, anyway." "That makes me feel a lot better," Nichelle said sardonically.

I had locked from him the deepest chambers of my fear, only to discover that he had his own key.