Quotes About Vulnerability

She couldn't run away from him. She'd be running from her own heart.

I'm worried about your lack of security, not your lack of nookie.

I doona want to be loved because I'm Undead. No more than ye would want to be rejected for being mortal.

When it comes to risky, controversial, and emotional conversations, skilled people find a way to get all relevant information (from themselves and others) out into the open. That's it. At the core of every successful conversation lies the free flow of relevant information. People openly and honestly express their opinions, share their feelings, and articulate their theories. They willingly and capably share their views, even when their ideas are controversial or unpopular.

By tentatively sharing a story rather than attacking, name-calling, and threatening, the worried spouse averted a huge battle, and the couple's relationship was strengthened at a time when it could easily have been damaged.

Here's why gifted communicators keep a close eye on safety. Dialogue calls for the free flow of meaning—period. And nothing kills the flow of meaning like fear. When you fear that people aren't buying into your ideas, you start pushing too hard. When you fear that you may be harmed in some way, you start withdrawing and hiding.

We're asking you to recode silence and violence as signs that people are feeling unsafe. We're asking you to fight your natural tendency to respond in kind. We're asking you to undo years of practice, maybe even eons of genetic shaping that prod you to take flight or pick a fight (when under attack), and recode the stimulus. "Ah, that's a sign that the other person feels unsafe." And then what? Do something to make it safe.

She had always been a person of ticklish sensibilities, easily overcome by the ordinary frictions of life.

The trouble is so many people run around avoiding things their entire lives. It's just too uncomfortable for them to look in the mirror at the roughest and darkest parts of themselves. Or they're terrified of spending five seconds looking bad and saying, "You know what, I fucked up. This is on me. I didn't do this or think about that, and so this happened. But here's what I'm going to do to help, and here's what I'm going to do next time.

Brodie Bruce: You're gonna listen to me? To something I said!? Jesus, man, haven't I made it abundantly clear during the tenure of our friendship that I don't know shit? I mean half the time I'm just talking out of my ass...or sticking my hand in it.

Maybe that's what children were, a desperate need that opened you up even if you didn't want it.

I'm so afraid. Because I'm so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening...They only let you this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.

She is furious with herself for her own stupidity. Opening herself up like this, voluntarily, to a lifetime of worry and anguish. It was madness. Sheer lunacy. A spectacularly foolish and baseless faith, against enormous odds, that a world you do not control will not take from you the one thing you cannot bear to lose. Faith that the world will not destroy you.

Hassan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty. That was a little unsettling but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed.

Love is a delicate thing that needs to be cosseted and protected. Love is not robust and love is not unyielding. Love can crumble under a few harsh words, or be tossed away with a handful of careless actions. Love isn't a steadfast dog at all; love is more like a pygmy mouse lemur.

She was the trembler of knees, the spiller of teacups.

I'll die if you go. The Jinn will come, and I'll have one of my fits. You'll see, I'll swallow my tongue and die. Don't leave me, Mariam jo. Please stay. I'll die if you go.

Happiness like this is frightening....they only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something away from you

I said to you, Hold my hand. Nothing bad will happen. These are only words. A father's tricks, It slays your father, your faith in him. Because all I can think tonight is how deep the sea, and how vast, how indifferent. How powerless I am to protect you from it. All I can do is pray.

How could I be such an open book to him when, half the time, I had no idea what was milling around in his head?

I was the lucky one because I was protected by my youth. Je pouvais oublier. I still had the luxury of forgetting. He did not.

I think I have grown accustomed to the glass and I am terrified that when it breaks, when I am alone, I will spill out into the wide open unknown and flop around, helpless, lost,grasping for breath.

Her beauty was a weapon. A loaded gun, with the barrel pointed at her own head.

No one snaps our composure quite like someone we love.