I saw for the first time that I could stop giving people the power to make me feel disrespected. In my anger I began to see the absurdity of allowing this boy to shame me.

The trees were friendly, they gave me rest and shadowed refuge. Slipping through them, I felt safe and competent. My whole body was occupied. I had little energy to think or worry.

Beneath hot sun, desert roses bloomed. Under cold moon, I still refused to.

Water was liquid silver, water was gold. It was clarity—a sacred thing. Drinking was no longer something to take for granted. I’d never needed to consider water before.

There was so little I wanted to carry. Packing my backpack took me all of four minutes

The bravest thing I ever did was leave there. The next bravest thing I did was come back, to make myself heard.

I’d believed I needed to be steady in myself before I could function with others—but surviving alone no longer felt like a good way either.

I realized that the most empowering important thing was actually simply taking care of myself.

I was promising myself strength.I had to write it, say it, make the effort and fake it before I actually believed I could do it.

I was the director of my life, it was already true, and I would soon lead myself to my dreamed-of destinations.It was the task of my one thousand miles of solitude.

I no longer needed to peel myself of my skin, or to hide. To Dash the colorless ephemeral things that existed just beneath my surface were as vivid as the beauty marks he traced on my cheek.

If you participate in a competition, you have a chance to lose. If you don’t participate, you are already a loser.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

We’re stars, you know. Different, distant, young and old, but we’re all made of the same stuff. We all shine just as bright as the next.

I would spend some of it. I would help a lot of people around me. I will change a lot of people's lives around me, honestly.

If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.

A message in a bottle is one of the most intriguing things that you can find, the circumstance and method of delivery forever hidden but just the message sitting there, enigmatic, to decode.

Unrecognized alcoholism is the ruling pathology among writers and intellectuals.

The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.

I have the attention span of a mosquito from multitasking and all the things that have affected my poor little brain.

The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly.