Quotes About Survival

Donald learned from a very young age that in order to survive in my family, he needed to be what my grandfather referred to as a killer, you know, somebody who had no weaknesses - in other words, kindness, generosity, sensitivity. So I think, over time, those qualities were systematically drilled out of Donald by his dad.

When I was a kid, we would build pillow forts. My pillow fort was always like Ice Station 9 in Antarctica. The other kids would come by and be like, 'Oh! The wind and snow is blowing.' From a young age, I wanted to be out there and surviving. I'm a high-strung, hyperactive guy.

Developing survival skills in life is incredibly important and I was very lucky that I developed them at a very young age.

As a young girl, I saw commitment in my grandmother, who helped Grandpa homestead our farm on the Kansas prairie. Somehow they outlasted the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and the tornadoes that terrorize the Great Plains.

We started the family Bible after slavery was abolished. My great-grandmother remembered the Bible being started, which meant that she was a slave as a young girl. When she died, the Bible was at least 105 years old, so she must have been nearly 115 years old. Her daughter, my grandmother, died at 97, and her husband at 98.

When I first read Anne Frank's 'Diary of a Young Girl,' I saw for the first time that a girl could be a writer and that it had something to do with survival and with ethics and fighting against evil. I admired her, though her diary remained terrifying and mysterious to me. She was a character in a real fairy tale - fairy tales are brutal.

In China, it was hard living as a young girl without my family. I had no idea what life was going to be like as a North Korean refugee. But I soon learned it's not only extremely difficult, it's also very dangerous, since North Korean refugees are considered in China as illegal migrants.

As a young man, I lived through the Great Depression, when banks failed and so many lost their jobs and homes and went hungry. I was fortunate to have a job at a canning factory that paid 25 cents an hour.

I clipped a Ferrari, hit the gravel trap at a fair old speed, which lifted the car up into the barrier, and then rolled a few times. I had no injuries or anything - I just had to wait for the marshals to right the car before I could get out.

Probably more than half my life, I've thought from a trap mindset, a hood mind frame in the way I was moving.

Roy, the guy I play in 'The Grifters,' is a guy who had a very bleak life. His mother had him at 13, and then when she was 17 or 18 and he was 4 or 5, they were trapped in a small Texas town somewhere, and she was ready to do anything to get out.

I developed 'Trapped' because I was fascinated with the idea of a terrible crime in a small town cut off from the rest of the world.

I call it 'The Breakfast Club' philosophy. There's something about being trapped in a dire situation with a group of people that you would never normally be trapped with.

Public housing officials are free to discriminate against you on the basis of criminal records, including arrest records. And so, you know, what you find is that even for these extremely minor offenses, people find themselves trapped in a permanent second-class status and struggling to survive.

Trapped' is unique because it focuses on one character who is stuck in an apartment.

Trapped' is the story of a guy stuck in an apartment with no food, no water and no electricity, and of his survival based on his primal instincts.

I've lived out of my car for months with my two babies. I've seen my belongings in trash bags along my backseat.

I used to walk to the Washington Monument from North L Street Northwest. And I was so hungry at times, I would stop and look into the trash cans, and if there was a half a sandwich, I would take that sandwich and eat it. It was just a matter of survival. I didn't think much of it, but it was just the way things were.

I didn't have any money. I used to try to take out people's trash and sweep the floor to make ends meet.

Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.

Five has sort of had his own little life aside from everyone. He spent 45 years in the apocalypse, and that took a toll on him and was a big part of his overall trauma.

Characters who experience great trauma will sometimes create an escape.

I was depressed after the transplant because it's very tough to understand the trauma you still face. I remember emptying a big bag of medication and just crying and thinking, 'For me to survive another day, this is what I've got to take. For the rest of my life. I'm not sure I can continue.'

I had no lasting physical trauma nor a psychological one. Yet, it was hard to return to the old path. I found myself asking big questions: Why was my life spared? What is my purpose here? And it led me to a life of inquiry.